Refined Darkness
by The Blade of Osh-Tekk
Summary: Pain does many a things. It can kill you. Make you stronger. Make you smarter. Better. Lonely. But pain unhealed rots. Grows worse. Festers. Make you bitter. Hateful. Darker. It's something everyone has in them. Whether they know it or not. The degree depends on the pain. And the results depend on the person.
1. Chapter 1 - Flaw In The Plan

A/N: For anyone following my other stories, lemme just say that I'm sorry for being gone so long. Been having so much fun with MKX and surprisingly Black Ops 3. I thought that game was gone be ass. But it's pretty fun. And creating an entire different story? Like, what the hell Osh-Tekk? lol. But I'll get to those later. I just want to play around with this. Let's just give it a shot. To people who actually know the series far better than I do, things may seem OOC, but bear with me here.

* * *

Raising an energy shield to block the ectoplasmic blast heading his way, the beam struck the side of a building harmlessly before Danny instantly dropped the shield and shot a quick blast to knock the blaster out of the ghost's hands.

"Miserable whelp! That blaster was brand new!" Skulker growled, immediately having to raise an artificial shield of his own to block the green ray Danny shot at him almost immediately.

"Tough. You're the one who picks the time I have to be at school to attack me. So if you could postpone your 'hunt,' I don't have to wreck any more of your toys," Danny said, keeping his hands charged with energy. Honestly, even though the adrenaline of the situation had him wide awake, firing blasts did nothing to solve the stiffness in his limbs. He didn't have time to eat this morning cause of Skulker's desire to hunt him this early in the morning. He was this close to just using a Ghostly Wail with reckless abandon, not caring what happened to the buildings caught in the radius. But then again, he didn't need more people to find more excuses as to why he was a threat to everybody.

"In your wildest dreams. I will not stop until your pelt rests at the foot at my bed," Skulker said, drawing an intimidating looking blade from the wrist of his suit. Danny internally sighed. He knew it wasn't going to be that easy. He could only hope.

"It's going to be awkward trying to skin a naked boy's body unless you're into that sort of thing," Danny said, immediately having to duck a sharp blade from Skulker who obviously didn't care for Danny's insinuation. Danny wasn't one for close combat, so he pressed an energy palm to Skulker's suit and knocked them back while they were in the air. Danny was slightly dazed from his blast while Skulker's armor dented slightly. Then flinched from another blast that hit him from the side.

Danny immediately turned to the side and smiled to see his two best friends, Sam and Tucker there. Tucker actually had a blaster in his hands, which surprised Danny slightly. Even Tucker looked surprised at himself as he looked at the blaster in his hands.

"He's surprised that we managed to hit anything. And we kinda borrowed these from your parents. Your dad was all but willing when we told him we were afraid we'd run into a ghost along the way. And we saw the fight as we were walking to school," Sam explained, seemingly reading his mind and answering all of his questions on the spot. She was unnaturally good for that. Danny shook his head. He wasn't even going to delve further into that.

"Enough of this!" Skulker said, pulling out two missile launchers on his shoulders while Danny had his thermos in one hand while his other hand was filling with ice energy. "Ectoplasm-Seeking missiles whelp. They'll find you no matter where you go. And the metal is perfectly designed for ghosts!"

 _"Then I know not to try and phase through them. Thanks, you idiot,"_ Danny thought as he prepared himself. The missiles flew towards him in a barrage. Only... not all of them. Danny was slightly confused, but he shook them off as being defective like many of Skulker's inventions before. People couldn't blame property damage on him for that.

Eyes flashing ice blue, his body stiffened before letting out a wave of ice energy that froze the missiles heading his way. It was something hoped worked. Otherwise, he'd be hurting. A lot. The smile that came to his face was short lived as he heard a scream that chilled him.

"Danny!" he heard Sam scream. Danny quickly turned and saw that the missiles weren't defective. They had a target in mind. His friends.

"No!" Danny yelled.

Scrambling and hoping to God he was accurate, He fired ice beam after ice beam, freezing the missiles before they hit his friends. But he wasn't fast enough before three of them hit the ground next to his friends. They only hit the ground because Sam tackled Tucker out of the way, but the explosions still caught them. Unfortunately, because of the spread, there was no way for the tackled Tucker to get any less of the explosions then Sam did. The explosions sent them flying in the air; left, right. Left, right. Then there was an uncomfortable sounding crunch as they landed.

And Skulker left. This was not supposed to happen. This was not supposed to happen at all. His missiles were followed ectoplasm, not blood. What went wrong in his calculations of his missiles where it followed... weaker prey? Then he remembered the weapons they were carrying. They detected the ectoplasm and went for them.

While the death of weaker prey was unsatisfying to him, he just realized that his hunt for the Ghost Child may have been cut short. His purpose of hunting the child was for a challenge that would satisfy him as he reaped the rewards when he succeeded. He may not have that challenge anymore. Humans were awfully attached to their friends. It made them weak. It would make the hunt unsatisfying. He would bide his time until the Ghost Child gathered his strength to whether he was worthy enough to garner his attention again. For now, want to do...

* * *

"Come on. Sam. Tucker," he said, holding his friends' heads on his legs. The worry in his voice was there. As much as he wanted to reassure them, he wasn't so confident himself. Tucker was already out. Danny knew his body was cold, but Tucker _felt_ cold. It was unnerving. But Sam was still awake. And to see someone gasp like their lungs were on fire as they were looking up at you was terrifying. The fact that it was one of his closest friends made it ten times worse. Her eyes were watery as if she was about to cry, but she wasn't. Purple eyes were looking at him with the most amount of vulnerability and weakness he had ever seen them have before. A look that scared him half to death. He didn't even care for the irony in that statement.

"Don't look at me like that. You'll be fine," Danny said, picking her up as well as Tucker. Luckily, ghosts had enhanced strength. He didn't use it often, but he was glad he had it. If he didn't have it, he definitely wouldn't be able to carry them.

His focus was keeping them on his back so they wouldn't fall off of him, but time was also of the essence. So he flew. Flew like he never flew before. Painful grunts from Sam and the rushing of the wind as he flew were the only things break the crippling silence. Her grunts were reminding him why he had to go fast. He got nothing but silence from Tucker, so he pushed himself even more, his grip firm, but not painful on them.

Landing and transforming almost immediately since there was no one was around, he continued to carry them as he walked in the hospital. To the first nurse he saw, Danny's words came out quick. Panicky. Rushed. But the nurse he found didn't bother trying to decipher what he was trying to say. All that he cared about was the fact that she was taking them away to fix them. That was all he cared about.

Danny's hands tightened on the chair he was sitting in, and he hadn't realized that the furnished wood was cracking under his ghost strength. Worry clouded his mind. This... something like this never happened before. It wasn't supposed to happen.

 _"Ectoplasm-seeking missiles. Then why did they target my friends, you liar?!"_ Danny yelled in his mind. He would've sent them packing if this was going to happen. Skulker knew he wanted his pelt, but to target his friends and had the nerve to _lie_ about it?!

"Young man?" Danny's head moved to the direction of the voice so fast, his neck might've snapped. This source of the voice came from an young woman in a chair across from him. As much as the voice calmed him down some and offered him a distraction to his mental yelling, he was not interested in talking to her. At the same time he didn't want to be rude.

"Yes?" Danny asked. His voice surprised him. It was low and crackly. Like a badly tuned radio.

"Do you need..."

"I don't need anything but good news. If you don't mind, I'd like to be let alone," Danny said, his grip on the chair finally releasing. She opened her mouth to say something, but looked down at the chair he was sitting in. Where the cracked arm rest was. Then she backed into her chair like she was shrinking away from him. Danny bit his lip in slight guilt, but he was also glad that she wasn't talking to him anymore. So he didn't apologize. Even then, what he really be apologizing for? Cracking a chair cause he was scared for his friends? Yeah, that's something to apologize for. But to the people who worked here. Not this lady.

"Sir?" a different lady asked after a while. The voice sounded familiar somehow. Then he faintly remembered someone frantically saying words to calm him down. It was the first nurse he found. That was who. So he looked up. Because he wanted to know.

"What's..." Danny cleared his throat. He didn't want to give away that he was worried. He knew there was no point that cause the nurse knew he was. She had done this for a while most likely. But it was also for himself. "What's the news?"

"The girl you brought us is alive. On the brink of death, but alive. Unfortunately, whatever hit them killed the male on impact. He's..."

She cut herself off at the hand Danny raised to silence her. He wouldn't normally do something like that, but he didn't want to hear it. He did not want to hear it. Not yet anyway. He had to hold on to the little bit of hope he had.

"How long will the operation take?" Danny asked.

"Few hours. The doctor's will do their best. In the meanwhile, I suggest you go to the police station and tell the police everything you witnessed. It is the best way..."

"A ghost did this. The police can't do anything about him. The wounds should attest to that," Danny said in a flat voice. "I'm just going to stay here."

"But it will be a long time. Are you sure?" the nurse asked.

"Yes. Just let the families know. Parents of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley," Danny said, making the nurse nod and walk off. Sympathy was lined in the nurse's expression, but rather than making him feel better, it just made him feel sick. Danny stood to his feet and walked into the bathroom. He put his hands on the counter and looked down at the ground. He clenched his fists so hard they were turning whiter than usual, and he bit his tongue so hard as to stifle back the tears.

"Please... Please let her be alright. Tucker... Oh, man. I'm so sorry," Danny said aloud, his stomach bubbling full of deserved or undeserved guilt. He couldn't decide which. When he did this, he hadn't planned on them dying. Not being up able to live their lives. He should've, but they didn't. And now they were dead. All he could do was hope. Pray. Danny was not the praying type, but he knew know was about as good a time as any. The wait game... It was a game he hated to play. But as of now, it was all he had.


	2. Chapter 2 - Survive the Day

"Where is my baby?" Danny didn't even look up at the voice. His arms were still crossed as he looked in front of him. Unblinking, and seemingly unmoving. His eyes were almost staring into nothing.

"In the operating room. You can take a seat next to the young man that brought her in," the nurse said. Danny suddenly frowned. He recognized the voice that spoke. It was Sam's mom, likely accompanied by her dad as well. He was not in the mood to deal with them.

Then he could feel their eyes on him. The stares made his shoulders tense, but he still kept his stare in the same position as before. He felt his best option was to shut down until he got some news. If he didn't, he'd probably be freaking out and pacing restlessly. It really wouldn't help anyone.

"What happened to my child?" a voice said in front of him suddenly. With a sigh, and seemingly incredibly effort, looked up. She looked at Danny with a look that was a struggle between impatience and platonic politeness. With even more effort, he spoke.

"Ghost attack," Danny said. His voice came out hoarse. The lack of use the past hours and the sheer stress of the situation was showing. In his voice and more than likely the look on his face.

"You should've helped her then!" She sounded scornful; as if the entire thing was his fault. Then with some twisted logic, it probably was. "Isn't that what your family does?"

"I don't get involved in the ghost hunting like they do," he told her. It technically wasn't a lie. He dealt with the ghosts in a different way that didn't relate to their parents. Yet it wasn't enough.

On this thought, Danny's shoulders slumped and his body shut down again. He looked forward with an expression that wasn't as blank as he would've liked. It was taking all the control in him not to think about the friend he lost. About the friend fighting for her life right now. About the retched ghost who did it. He wasn't going to think about it. Nope. He wasn't.

 _"Oh, but that wouldn't do you very good, would it?"_ a part of his mind thought. Danny put a hand to the side of his head and rubbed it to ease the ache that was slowly beginning to build.

 _"I can't lose control now. I have to... stay in it,"_ another part of his mind thought in an exhausted fashion. Then his mind quieted; the thoughts replaced with a headache.

Then there was the wait. He had to wait. And wait. And wait. His butt fell asleep, his bones ached in the chair, but he stayed there. He couldn't force himself to move for anything. Then he felt a hand touch his shoulder, and he stiffened.

"Calm down young man. I'm here to suggest you go home. The doctors here will be taking care of Samantha Manson over night. Why don't you go to school now? There is still a few hours left. You'll be excused," the nurse said. Danny shook his head.

"How am I going to focus in this situation?" he questioned.

"You'll find out what is happening tomorrow. I could barely keep you here for as long as I did, but there are limits," the nurse said, her voice now slightly firm. Danny sighed, but he knew she had to do her job. This was going to eat away at him, but there was nothing he could do about that.

"Alright. Thank you for keeping me here for as long as long as you could," Danny said, wearily standing to his feet. He went towards the exit but then the nurse thought about something.

"Wait! Don't you need a way to get ba- he can't hear me," the nurse said with a sigh. "Guess he's walking." The nurse didn't know that the boy in question could transform into a ghost and fly off into the air.

* * *

"William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent ..." Mr. Lancer was cut off by his door opening. He turned around to see that Danny Fenton had walked into his classroom. Under normal circumstances, he'd have to give him a detention. But after the feedback he received about his friends being in the hospital, he was wondering if he should tell him to go home instead.

"Ah, Mr. Fenton. Take a seat," Mr. Lancer said, gesturing toward the other desks. Danny pulled his bag tighter on his shoulder before walking forward.

Dash Baxter grinned as he saw Danny heading toward the section near his desk. With swiftness as he grew nearer, Dash quickly stuck his foot out. But Fenton did something completely unexpected. He stopped, stiffened as if he was about to have a seizure, and stepped over his foot before keep going towards the back of the class. All while not even sparing Dash a glance. The jock in question gave off a small growl. He had plans with Fen-turd after class was over.

Danny sat down, the gesture feeling like he just landed from a ten foot drop. It felt heavier than it really was to him. His head was still spinning and he was still trying to keep his mind empty. But the more he sat there, the harder it was proving to be. The image of his friends lying on the ground dead or desperately clutching for their life was sitting in front of his face and taunting him. The very image made him shiver in his sleep and he quickly looked up to see if anyone noticed. They didn't. Then Danny mentally scoffed. Why would they? He was just one of the weirdos of this school. He didn't deserve to be here.

"Mr. Fenton!" Mr. Lancer exclaimed with more emphasis.

"WHAT?!" Danny suddenly bellowed, his voice coming off in a rough bellow. A number of the students jumped at the voice that spoke. They didn't expect it to sound so deep. Or terrifying. Almost as if there was something otherworldly behind his normally mellow demeanor. Then as if he noticed what happened, Danny raised a hand while looking slightly down at his desk before looking at Mr. Lancer with a slightly apologetic look.

"I'm sorry about that," he said, his voice about as apologetic as his expression. Mr. Lancer narrowed his eyes, but there was no scrutiny in the gesture. No, rather there was a type of softness in it. He knew what was going through the teen's mind, and he couldn't blame him for being on edge.

"Don't let it happen again Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer said. Not necessarily sternly, but more on the neutral side. Danny nodded and Mr. Lancer went back to his lesson. Danny then sat up and, for the first time since he could remember, he _tried_ to listen to the lesson that Mr. Lancer was giving. While it bored him to tears, it was better than thinking about the unpleasantness of today's events. He didn't need pity. He didn't want it. He just wanted his friends to be alright.

 _"Well, one of them at least,"_ Danny reminded himself, remembering that one of his friends was well and truly gone. The very thought caused Danny to bend over his desk as if someone suddenly socked him in the gut while he was sitting down. He laid his head down like he was getting bored and about to go to sleep and he hoped no one would notice the gesture. They didn't. Again, why would they?

Then it was over. Danny's first goal was to get out of here as fast as possible, take enough sleeping pills for him to sleep the day away before waking up and going back to the hospital. As a person who never took meds, this really meant something.

With a weary body and a vacant mind, he walked as if he were among the undead as he walked out of the classroom and held the strap on his shoulder with more firmness before heading towards the exit. He made it out of the door and in front of the steps before he was suddenly grabbed. The sudden gesture made Danny suddenly wheel around faster than was humanely possible and ripping himself out of the person's grip, managing to regain his balance before he hit the steps.

Dash was surprised when he suddenly found his grip gone around Fenton's shirt. Not only that, he landed on the front of the steps on his feet rather than tumbling like down like he expected. Almost at the same time, they both looked up and looked each other dead in the face. Fenton wasted no time in bolting like he should've.

"Get back here, Fen-turd!" Dash exclaimed, starting to sprint after him. He had a cocky smirk on his face once they started. Dash was a fit jock that played football. Fen-turd was a scrawny nerd. He wouldn't get far. At least that's what he thought. What he didn't expect was for him to be fast enough to slip him. The very thought frustrated him. He may not have gotten him today, but he was definitely going to get him tomorrow. He couldn't run at that time.

* * *

 _"This is getting old really fast,"_ Danny thought as he neared his house.

 _"Dash is a jackass. We've established this,"_ he thought. There was no second thinking that thought. He was the embodiment of the worst type of person in high school. The overconfident jock who thought he ran the school and thought he was better than everyone else because knew how to play sports. So many times he wanted to get his payback on him, but he restrained the urge. The one time he tried ended up going bad for him. As if fate wanted to punish him for taking the little bit of recompense he deserved.

Danny's hand unconsciously tightened hard on the door of his house before he wrenched it it opened and closed it with a moderate amount of force, not knowing that the handle bent in on itself. He knew he was getting angry and had to force himself to calm down.

"Please be quieter when you're opening the door sweetie," he heard his mom say from the kitchen.

"Yeah, of course," Danny said, his voice barely audible and very unenthusiastic. He didn't bother to visit the kitchen like he normally did to say hello and instead decided to go upstairs with heavy steps. He passed his sister's door that was cracked open slightly and threw his bag into a corner before heading towards the bathroom that was up here.

Opening the cabinet above the over the sink, he grabbed the sleeping pills that were there and grabbed about three of them before forcing them down his throat and closing the bottle.

"What are you doing?" he heard his sister say behind him. Danny put the pills back in the cabinet and turned to face his sister. What she wasn't expecting was to see how tired her brother looked. Almost as if he hadn't been sleeping. But she knew he had gotten to sleep before she did.

"I'm tired," Danny said.

"You look it," Jazz said. "Bad night?"

"Bad day is more like it. I need to lie down," Danny said, walking out of the bathroom before gesturing to the bathroom. "It's yours if you need it."

Danny opened his door and lied down on his bed while kicking off his shoes. He lied there for what felt like the longest time. He didn't know if sleeping pills didn't work on half ghosts or just took a long time to take effect. He certainly hoped that wasn't the case. The odds of him going to sleep with him trying to keep his mind blank so to speak, and failing miserably a lot of the time was very thin. He didn't normally take pills. They were just there if needed, which wasn't the most responsible thing in the world, but he was glad for it.

But by the grace of God, Danny felt his eyes getting heavier as he laid there for a few more moments and then nodded off. A hooded figure figure walked near the edge of the bed while looking at the half-ghost on the bed. A grim smile came to his face.

"Enjoy the innocent sleep for now, Daniel. Your world will change soon," he said. "Nocturne will be graceful today." Then he left.

* * *

"Well, I'll inform the boy who came here soon after. I'll also inform the school so there's some clarity on the situation," the nurse said with a nod.

"I'll tell you one thing. Out of the ghost attacks that have happened in this city, this is the first time it resulted in serious injury. And it was not pretty," the doctor said.

"No it wasn't. And trust me, if you had seen the kid who had to carry them both here, you know he's having a hard time processing it all. At least in a way that he feels he can handle," the nurse said. "You run into a lot of people on this job and see a lot of different things. That is definitely not one of the things you want to see."

"You're a good nurse Joyce. Your intentions are good. Catch some sleep. You deserve it and are going to need it. I'd offer to tell him for you, but..."

"It's not your shift tomorrow. I know how the schedules work. Go ahead and head out doctor,. I'll lock up," Joyce said. The doctor nodded and began to take his leave. Joyce hated working the twenty-four hour shifts, but that was how being a nurse was. At least she was able to sleep during the times there were no patients combing in. And frankly, she was glad for it. Cause no one was getting hurt and cause no one had to wake her up. But then she sighed.

"How in the world do I break the news to a teenagers that now both of his friends are dead?" she said to herself. She didn't want to expect, and quite frankly, she didn't want to. She didn't know what it was about this kid in general, but he gave her a different type of vibe. She felt a type of deep seriousness in him that you wouldn't expect to see in any type of child. Not in a type of pure business type of way, but something even more serious. Like life and death. The sensation gave her slight chills.

Joyce curled up in as comfortable as a position as she could get in the chair she was sitting in before nodding off. Tomorrow, she was preparing herself for what was to come. She was definitely glad that the girl's parents had left. Things would've gotten really messy really fast. She only wished this world was more fair to people.


	3. Chapter 3 - An Uncertain Future

A/N: Felt like updating this, so I did. I do plan on finishing this. Just not immediately, so updates will be sporadic af.

* * *

Danny was up early the next morning. His desire was to immediately head over to the hospital. Visiting hours were at eight in the morning, while school started at eight as well. He didn't really care for getting to school on time, or at all if she was awake. The status of Sam's condition was his first priority.

In fifteen minutes, Danny showered, dressed himself, popped several pieces of gum in his mouth rather than brush his teeth before beginning to head out the door. He turned ghost before taking to the skies with his bag over his shoulder. He still actually planned on going to school. Just not until he knew how Sam was doing. It wasn't like he was a strange to being late.

Jazz saw his brother leave fly off from her window, and her curiosity was definitely peaked. She could tell his behavior seemed... off from what happened yesterday. He looked beyond stressed, and it definitely showed. Not just by the sleeping pills he took just to get some sleep. She'd ask him about it when he got back maybe.

Transforming back to his human form on the roof of the hospital and leaped down without his legs wavering when he jumped. Danny went towards the front entrance and walked up to the front desk to face the nurse from yesterday, who was asleep in front of him. Unfortunately, Danny was not in the mood to wake her up politely today. So he rang the bell in front of the desk, making her jerk awake with her hair in front of her face. Ugh, she hated the rare moments when people actually arrived this early.

"So sorry to interrupt your sleep, but visiting hours have started," Danny told her. Nurse Joyce yawned before rubbing her eyes and looking at Danny better. Then what he said finally sunk in.

 _"Dammit. Didn't expect him to actually know that the precise time,"_ Joyce thought as she looked at his face, which showed pure impatience.

"Don't you have school?" she asked him with a raised brow as a way to deflect his request.

"And?" Danny questioned. As if it didn't matter. And it didn't. Why would he want to go there when one of his friends was here, fighting for her life? Sam needed his support, and he would gladly give it to her.

"And you need to go to school," Joyce said, her voice stern.

"What I need is to be here. Let me see her," Danny said before his voice softened. "Please."

The crack in his voice made Joyce soften visibly, no matter how much she thought she should keep up the stern visage. It hurt to see someone so wounded in front of her. Desperate and sad. Joyce thought she was used to looks like this.

"I'm sorry. They'll still be here when you get back. Just... go on back," she said.

Danny sighed. He internally growled, but there was a bit of resignation there as well. He should've known he couldn't just waltz in here and skip school. Anyone who had any sort of responsibility wouldn't have let him pull this off. Then he'll have to pull it off on his own then.

"Fine then," Danny said impatiently. He never saw the look of sympathy that crossed her face as she watched him walk away. Then again, she never saw the halfa turn into his ghost alter ego and phase through the wall, invisible and intangible. You learned to do both, after a while. It came in handy in the right situation.

Looking around, Danny saw that the nurse he talked to was sitting at her desk and rubbing her temples. By the looks of things, she didn't want to turn him away, but she knew she had to. It was alright. He was going to see her anyway. But the problem was that he didn't know what room she was in. Danny's eyes locked onto the filing cabinet that was behind her, and he knew he couldn't just go rustling through it. He'd need to get her away. He really didn't want the GIW, or God forbid, his parents barging into the hospital because of a ghost sighting.

Danny looked around. There had to be a way to get her to move from that spot. His eyes, as if it were a magnet to metal, locked on the coffee cup that was in front of her. There was plenty of steam coming out of it, so it would definitely hurt if it was spilled. Danny bit his lip in slight hesitation. Did he want to hurt her just to get in to see Sam? When he could just wait?

 _"You be the judge. She's in there_ dying. _Besides, it's not like you enjoy school,"_ his mind berated him for that fact that this was even a decision. So he fired a small ectoplasmic blast at the cup. It was just weak enough to not blow a hole through it, but knock it over onto her leg.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, immediately hopping up as she held her soaked and scalded leg. Danny tried to ignore her painful hissing as she got up to head towards the bathroom. That was his cue to go over to the filing cabinets.

"Manson... Manson..." he said in a voice more silent than a whisper. Luckily they were labeled, so it was only a matter of him searching through the files of one specific drawer.

 _"Mabe, Macal, Maddry... Come on..."_

 _"Malvez... Manson!"_ He immediately started to search her file, and his grip tightened on the file he was holding after looking at the snapshots they had taken of her injuries. Scorch marks, bruises, open wounds. He didn't even want to look at the X-rays. Or anything else for that matter. All he wanted to find was what room she was in.

 _"Location: Previously in room 326. Will be transferred once parents are notified of COD,"_ he read in his mind. _"COD? Stupid hospital lingo. Can't they just say what they mean? What does COD even..."_

Then the word "previously" was highlighted in his mind. It was like playing a game of truth or dare, and this was a dare, but his eyes wandered up to the sections he overlooked because of his priority to find her current location.

 _"Sam Manson, age 15. Hospitalized after an encounter with a ghost... Status is..."_ His brain paused as he read the last word. _"Deceased."_

The moment of disbelief was there for a few seconds. It didn't even matter that the nurse could be coming back any second. His brain just paused from "Sam Manson" and "deceased" used in the same description. This was not how their ghost hunting was supposed to go. He insisted on letting them help because at times, he needed the help. And the company. If he had known it would lead to... this, he would've frozen them to their beds if necessary.

His knees nearly gave out on him, and he dropped the file while putting a hand on the filing cabinet for support. He hadn't even noticed that he had reverted to his human form in his grief, his eyes shut tightly while his head was moving from side to side as some reflex of denying that this is actually happening. They couldn't have been dead. He saved them. Or Clockwork did, gave him a second chance! And he blew it. It was a couple of lives short, but it still hurt. It was still nothing less than crippling.

Tears leaked out of his face as he sunk to his knees, the file dropping to his side. He didn't want to believe that this was happening to him, but there was the blatant evidence right there. Hospital records don't lie to mess with half ghosts they don't even know are half ghosts. This was actually happening. A nightmare, except he was awake. There was no going back from this.

"Stupid coffee. Those burns..." Joyce stopped at the crouching teen near her filing cabinet. She was about to open her mouth to tell him off, but her eyes laid on the file that was next to him first. He obviously read it. And he obviously knew what she didn't want to tell him. Any thought of telling him off died on her lips.

"Um... kid?" Joyce said hesitantly. He suddenly stiffened as if he was paralyzed, but then his face turned towards her. Eyes tear-stained, but glowing a bright green. Wait, weren't they blue? Was her memory getting short or something?

"Leave. Me. Alone," Danny ground out. The anger in his voice was misplaced, he knew that. But he wanted to focus his sadness on something, _anything_ that was more distracting.

"Listen... I know..."

"Do you?" he cut her off. "Do you know what I'm going through?" Joyce was silent, and Danny couldn't stop a humorless laugh from passing through his lips. People will say anything in some vain attempt that you'll feel better about the situation. Pointless. Absolutely pointless.

"That's what I thought," Danny said, furiously wiping a hand across his face and heading towards the exit. He transformed and flew off. He had no idea where he was going. He just wanted to go somewhere. Anywhere that wasn't here. He didn't want to focus on the here and now. The here and now was too painful to think about.

Somehow, Danny found his feet landing on a rock. He looked up, and found himself in a valley. No plant life, no animals. Just... nothing but rocks. A feeling rose up in the back of his throat, and before he knew it, he started wailing. Not a crying wailing, mind you. No, his Ghostly Wail was released full force on rocky plain that was inhabited by no one. Powerful ectoplasmic waves shot out of his mouth and impacted everything within range. And it had _a lot_ of range.

He didn't know how long he kept up the wail. It could've been seconds, minutes, hours. He wouldn't have known the difference. The Wail itself was fueled by raw emotion; internal pain that needed an outlet. And this was his outlet. A power of indescribable destruction.

And then he stopped as he sunk to his knees. Danny didn't know whether his voice just got tired or just the full on ache traveling through his body made him stop. But as soon as he did, there was nothing to stop him from crying again. The palms of his hands pounded against his forehead repeatedly as hot tears leaked from his eyes and onto his pants.

"This was not how it was supposed to go," he sobbed aloud in chokes. Before knew he knew it, he said it again. And again. And again. It became a mantra for him to say, and it was true. He expected to have to deal with the ghost fighting until... well, he never really thought about it. He thought that they would eventually get tired. Ghosts didn't get old, but humans did. What _would_ he have done? Well, it didn't really matter, now did it? His friends were dead. All because of...

Danny scraped his fingers on the ground beneath him, but that was because past the sadness, there was anger; furious and white-hot anger bubbling in the back of his brain. His head pounded with the two emotions battling in his brain, but pain was something he was used to. He had nothing to really direct that anger towards. More specifically, the person he really wanted to release his anger on. Regardless if he did, it wouldn't make him feel better. With that depressing thought, Danny deflated as if he were a popped balloon, shoulders slumping and looking at the destroyed rocks dejectedly.

* * *

Jazz walked in the house while rubbing her neck. There wasn't commotion in the kitchen, so her parents must've been down in the lab. Then she reminded herself about Danny's attitude yesterday. She would have to ask him about that when he got here. Very little got to her brother, she knew that. So something definitely had to be wrong.

She opened her door and was about to walk in when a crack of light caught her eye. She turned around and saw that Danny's door was cracked open. If memory served, which in her case was pretty accurate, that door was closed when she left. In her mind, it was worth checking out.

Walking up to the door, she simply eased the door open and saw her brother lying his bed and staring at the ceiling without movement. He barely blinked the entire time he was lying there. She didn't think he knew she was there until he spoke up.

"If you're gonna stare, at least close the door," Danny said tonelessly. He didn't even look at her.

"You should be at school. Did something happen?" Jazz asked.

"There are a lot of things that we should do, but don't. It's how it works," Danny said, still not taking his eyes of the ceiling and talking in the same toneless voice. Judging by that statement, he skipped off.

"Alright, what's the matter?" Jazz asked.

"Do me a favor and please don't try to get inside my head, Miss Psychiatrist. Not right now," Danny said with the same demeanor and tone.

"That only tells me something's wrong," Jazz said, undeterred by her brother's attitude.

"Get out Jazz," Danny said, his voice still toneless.

"Why should I? You're supposed to be at school," Jazz said, her tone suddenly stern.

"And I can gladly tell you that I don't care right now," Danny said, heat worming its way into his tone.

"You will if I tell mom and dad," Jazz said with a raised brow.

"Like I care about that. I'll just go off during a break between classes if they try and take me there," Danny said, the toneless tone returning. The tone made Jazz uneasy. It wasn't like Danny to sound so... detached.

"What's wrong Danny?" Jazz said, her tone getting softer as she sat down on his bed. Something was definitely wrong with him.

"I'm fine," he said, not making eye contact with her.

"Regardless of everything that happens at that school, you've never once taken off a day. Why now?" she asked him.

"Because I needed a break," Danny said simply.

"Superheroes don't take breaks, Danny," Jazz reminded him, making Danny laugh hollowly. The heavy feeling in his chest intensified as he rolled over on his side.

"Some hero I am," he said bitterly as his grip tightened around the covers.

"What are you on about? You've helped lots of people, you know," Jazz said. "Bad day?"

"Get. Out," Danny ground out angrily. Jazz opened her mouth to argue, but then she saw his eyes. They were green, which really showed that he was upset. But this was no different than how she usually bugged him. Why was he so upset at her now?

"Fine then. Maybe Sam and Tucker can get through to you," Jazz said, starting to head towards the door.

That did it. That one sentence did it. Against everything in his body screaming for him not too, a choked sob escaped from his mouth. He muffled it with the pillow before it made any real noise, but it was there.

 _"Idiot. You really wanna be by yourself thinking about this? She's part of this too if the future is anything to show,"_ his mind told him. His fingers gripped the pillow he was covering his mouth with tighter, imprints making their mark from how hard he was gripping. Suddenly has was back at the Nasty Burger, everyone he cared about, trapped... about to go up in flames...

"Stop," Danny said, suddenly sitting up. Jazz had almost closed the door when she heard her brother's voice. And unless her ears were deceiving her, she heard a crack in it. "Don't leave. Not like..."

Her ears definitely weren't deceiving her now. His voice cracked and there was a... choked sob? All thoughts of leaving were left somewhere else. She turned back around and saw him sitting on the side of his bed, seemingly fighting back tears. She saw all the signs with the way he tensed, his head turned the other way. Seeing him cry was strangely like seeing her parents cry, even though they never have. It's just something that should never happen.

"They're dead..." Danny said, his voice somehow managing to sound hollow and sorrowful at the same time. He shook his head as if trying to dispel memories, but the attempt seemed to make him more hysteric. He looked to be on the verge of a breakdown. Without hesitation, she sat down and pulled him close to comfort him. Someone must've died today and he couldn't stop them in time. This type of lifestyle was something no one should have to deal with, let alone her little brother.

Danny was a silent crier, it seemed. He made no audible sound, but she could feel her shoulder getting moist from tears. She hadn't seen him cry it ages. Again, considering the circumstances, it was something that just shouldn't happen. She was here, though. At the very least. And she that Danny would be too stubborn to tell Sam and Tucker. She would do it for him then.

* * *

A/N: Don't know when I'm going to update this again, but I will update it. Can't wait to get to the parts I have planned. They'll be... interesting, to say the least. Hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4 - Something Constructive

Danny's gaze scanned every section of the ghost zone. He skipped school today. Like, what was even the point of doing what he supposed to do now? Not like he would learn anything in there with his current state of mind. His mind would just keep going back to how Sam and Tucker were supposed to be there, but weren't. It would just get him depressed and moody all over again. No, he figured his time was better spent on something more constructive. Getting some answers from Skulker.

Danny had no idea what he was even going to do when he reached the ghost's island. Would he actually be able to take the situation as calmly as he thought he could? Or would he just attack him on sight? He also had to contest with the different traps that were sure to be on the hunter's island, which would more than likely get in his way. He'd have to be careful, but nothing was going to stop him from getting to Skulker.

 _"What are you going do once you get to him, hmm? Can you even kill ghosts?"_ his mind questioned.

 _"No, we're... I'm not going to kill him. Feel like I'm going insane here,"_ the second half of his mind said. _"We just want answers."_

 _"Answer to a question that you already have the answer to. He killed Sam and Tucker. That's all there is too it."_ It was so much like an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. Only the devil sounded strangely enticing. But no. He would stick to his guns. He would do the right thing here. Yet at the same time, he didn't exactly know what the right thing was. But a beam striking his back that caused him to fly forward before he stopped himself in midair stopped his pondering.

"Great," Danny murmured as he turned to face his opponent.

"I could've told you it was a bad idea to come here dipstick," Ember said with a grin. Danny's impatience only grew.

"I don't have time for this. How about you walk... er, float away from here and I won't leave you in the thermos for a week. I get awfully forgetful you know..." Danny said even as his fists lit up with energy. It's almost as if his body was hoping that she would deny the offer. He then became aware of his vision patching up with black spots. As if resisting the urge to fall unconscious.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Ember said before she blew a chord at him. Had he not felt so upset, it felt like Danny would've smiled at her words. Well, at least he had a way to blow off some steam.

Danny dodged the chord she launched at him with seemingly no effort before launching beams of his own, which she dodged. She was smirking, at for some reason, that made Danny angry. Suddenly, things went black. Only he could see.

"What's the matter babypop? Can't..." Suddenly her throat closed off. Ghosts didn't need air to exist obviously, but they could still feel pain. And the thing around her throat was as tight as anything. That was when her eyes wandered up and saw that Phantom was in fact holding her throat with an ectoplasmic whip. She didn't even know he could make weapons with his powers. And... why did he look so angry?

"I offered you a chance. And what do you do?" Danny questioned before she was jerked forward. And immediately blasted back by a beam he shot towards her. She groaned is she managed to recover in midair.

"Attack me," Danny finished, floating in front of her. "What... a... surprise." Each emphasized word was followed by him creating a clone, effectively surrounding her. He didn't normally use clones unless he was fighting a substantially difficult opponent, but for some reason he was feeling... playful. Wait, playful? The headache was back. This didn't seem right... Unfortunately, that was what gave him away to Ember about him being the real one.

"Gotcha!" she said as she blasted a chord in his direction. In an unnaturally calm fashion, he raised a shield to block the chord and it stopped dead. Didn't even crack. The headache was gone.

"Do you? Because I'm ready for more," Danny said, all of his clones blasting her at the same time. It took everything for Ember not to yell. His blasts hurt a lot more this time. And this was him splitting his power levels. Did he always pull his punches?

The ghost rocker was distinctly aware of a presence catching her before she fell into the endless pit. Who knows when she would've recovered. But she certainly wasn't being held nicely. She was in fact, being held by her throat. Looking up, she looked straight into the eyes of Danny Phantom.

"Where's Skulker," Danny said, his voice calm and demanding rather than asking. But she knew there was something... off about him. He had never used physical attacks before, but right now, it was like he was trying to strangle the afterlife out of her. Not only that, but his eyes were bright green, but it's more like they were chips of ice. It gave her a strange feeling of Vlad Plasmius.

"How would I know where he is? He's always going off somewhere hunting..." Suddenly his grip tightened, and she could've sworn that he just gave her several bruises on her neck. Ember swallowed hard. She wasn't dealing with goody two shoes Danny Phantom. No, she was dealing with a Phantom that was willing to hurt her. And hurt her bad.

"Don't. Lie. To me," Danny said slowly, his tone cold. He then placed a hand to her head. Slowly she felt the top of her head begin to chill. Her eyes widened as her head was made of fire, and he was able to freeze it solid. She channeled her energy through her fire hair. And she was not going to melt this off without someone chanting her name. Believe her. She was trying.

"I mean... you could check his fortress," Ember said, trying to put as much volume in her voice as she could to avoid sounding meek. She couldn't believe she actually felt scared. Of Phantom. Then again, he was giving her good reason to.

"My thoughts exactly. And you would know where his traps are, wouldn't you?" Danny asked, causing her to nod. "Good. I won't go today, but... when I need you... I will come. And we will venture on the island together. You will disable the traps. If you don't, well, that all depends on what Skulker sets up. It's guaranteed to be painful."

Ember's eyes widened in realization. He wasn't going to trust her. He was going to use her as a dummy for the traps if she tried to deceive him. Smart, because she most likely would've made him walk straight into one, but it was still horrifying. She just hoped Skulker didn't change the location of his traps from the last time she was there.

"Now, cooperate and you'll walk away just fine," Danny said, getting rid of the ice on her head. But then his grip tightened on her throat and she suddenly felt her guitar being wrenched from her hand. Her hand tried to reach for it back, but he was able to restrain her with minor effort.

"But if you end up lying to me or warning Skulker, well, I hope you like a broken guitar to make songs with," Danny told her, somehow making her eyes widen even more. "You can talk to him all you want. But if you warn him, I'll know. And... well, as you can see, I'm not feeling very nice. Remember that." Then he whacked her upside the head with it to knock her out.

As if he suddenly got the worst headache ever, he gripped his forehead with his knees slightly bent before taking in his surroundings. He was aware of something being in his hand, and looked to see that he had Ember's guitar. Looking around in curiosity, he saw Ember on the patch of land in front of him in an unconscious state.

He also noted the bruises that were on her neck, and wondered where they came from. She and Skulker have a fight or something? Then again, he had more faith that the rocker would win the fight over the so called 'hunter.'

"That's weird," Danny said as he put her guitar down. He took a look at Ember and wondered if he should actually find a ghost to take her back to her place or someone that she knew.

"Nah. Better to get out of here before someone shows up and causes problems for you," his mind told him. Somewhat hesitantly, his body was in agreement with his mind and he ended up floating off.

* * *

"Skulker!" Ember exclaimed, pounding on the door to his lair. "Skulker!" She had woken up on the same patch of land Phantom left her out, and the bruises on her neck were a reminder as to what she experienced back there was no dream. Phantom had something against Skulker, and, by the looks of things, willing to do anything to do it. And considering Phantom had beat them all and sent them back to the ghost zone on a daily basis, she wasn't a big fan of finding out what methods he would use if he didn't cooperate.

"What woman?!" Skulker exclaimed, wrenching open the door. She glared at him.

"Stuff it with the woman thing blob head. We've got bigger issues. What'd you do to piss off Phantom?" Ember questioned, heat in her tone.

"What do you mean 'piss him off?'" Skulker questioned.

"Skulker." Her voice wasn't as icy as Phantom was when he threatened her, but it was good enough. "I just found Phantom and he's looking for you. But because he found me first, I ended up getting the crap kicked out of me. You think Phantom normally does _this_ to people?" She put extra emphasis towards the bruises on her neck, and Skulker seemed to finally get the idea.

"A simple miscalculation," he said rather calmly.

"What could you have possibly miscalculated that got him going from a disgusting goody two shoes hero to a second coming of OJ Simpson?!" Ember exclaimed, raising her hands as if she were coming down on him like a large bird of prey.

"My ectoplasmic rockets. Some of them seemed to have tracked the ecto signature of his human friends and they were injured from the explosions. I expected it to put him in a status of mourning, which in turn..."

"Skulker! Focus! Instead of him being upset, he's pissed off! Judging by his methods, he wants your head on a platter. Do you know how badly my neck hurts?!" Ember said, furiously gesturing towards her bruises again.

"Did you at least defend yourself?" Skulker questioned.

"UGH! You are-" Ember was about ready to blast the hunter, but she stopped herself last minute. She wouldn't be surprised if Phantom still smashed her guitar if she had gotten to him before he did. She was the one to start the fight, but that was besides the point. His careless response is what made her mad.

"How about you do't got near me," Ember said calmly before her tone got darker. "For the next few days." Then she flew off. Skulker was beyond confused, but Ember would find just a bit of pleasure in making sure Skulker got the crap beaten out of him.


	5. Chapter 5 - Misplaced Aggression

He decided to go to school today. He didn't even know why. He just did. There was no logical reasoning as to why he went considering all that was going through his head at this moment. Even more considering the fact that he didn't sleep much. He tried falling asleep without the pills. Did not go well.

He sat at his desk, his hand on his mouth and his eyebrows furrowed in thought. His eyes were focused on Lancer's lecture, but only one ear was listening. The other was waiting for something that wasn't natural to happen. Something. Anything. He was waiting.

 _"Hope it's Skulker,"_ he thought as the fist that was lying on his desk tightened.

"The two families in the play were what Mr. Fenton?" the teacher asked, making several students snicker. He had no idea what the subject was until he looked down at the Romeo and Juliet book that they had apparently been reading. He definitely didn't know the answer to this.

"I wouldn't know. I didn't read the book," Danny said moodily. The snickering grew in volume, but Lancer shushed them all. He stared at Danny and even though his head was slightly tilted downward, he could see the bags and dark circles under his eyes. Exhausted blue eyes, yet awake at the same time.

"Well, do make sure to come prepared next time," Lancer said simply. He didn't know how much longer he could give the teenager a free pass. He lost his friends and it seemed any care for anything else around him somehow diminished even more. Maybe a counselor would do him so good. At least until the deaths of these students were announced.

Some of the students looked at Lancer weirdly. Normally Lancer wouldn't miss an excuse to reprimand someone or give them detention. Then they looked over at Fenton. He looked dead tired. No different than usual. Them being tired never got them out of trouble.

When the bell rung, Danny was the first one out of his seat. But Lancer stopped him.

"Mr. Fenton... a word," Lancer said. Danny stopped in his tracks before grudgingly turning around to go towards the teacher. Several students smirked at the teen and he repressed an urge to fire an ecto blast at them. But he just focused on Lancer.

"Yeah?" Danny asked, expecting the man to rip into him for not paying attention.

"Are you ok?" Lancer asked him. That was not a question he expected. His eyes widened a tiny bit in surprise of the question, but it quickly disappeared.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Danny said.

"Mr. Fenton... I heard about what happened with your friends," Lancer said gently, causing Danny to stiffen. It was a reaction he expected and the flash of pain that appeared on the teenager's face made his look soften even more.

"Stupid ghosts," Danny said, the pained look disappearing on the spot. But the mental open wound still prodded him. "It's funny, huh? How the few friends I have in this world wind up dead?"

Lancer was silent. People that were close to him didn't die. They died of age, not through being murdered by supernatural beings.

"I'm sorry to tell you, but I can't pay much attention in your class when my mind keeps going back to that day. It happening is one thing. Being there to witness it is even worse," Danny said, fixing his teacher with a stare that shouldn't be on someone of his age. It even made Lancer uncomfortable.

"There will be a more formal announcement as to the fate of Mr. Foley and Ms. Manson. If you wish, you may give a testament as to what happened," Lancer told him.

"Don't hold your breath on that. But I do thank you for telling me," Danny said, nodding at his teacher respectively before pulling his bag more on his back and walking out of the classroom.

So there was going to be an announcement. Great. Just fate's way of pouring more salt into his wound, huh? That his friends were dead and were more than likely not coming back as ghosts because they didn't have obsessions. He didn't like the idea of having to put his friends back in the Ghost Zone anyway. But at the same time, the feeling of loneliness set in.

As if he visibly deflated, his shoulders slumped as leaned against the wall. The unmistakable cry for his name from Sam rang through his head as well as the sights of their bodies after the missiles hit. It's something he wouldn't care to remember, but it was stuck in his mind. And no matter how tight he gripped his head, the images didn't go away.

"Get a grip Fenton," he said as he opened his eyes. He ignored the strange looks that people shot at him before walking to his next class. But that didn't last long before blue mist escaped his mouth.

 _"Oh great,"_ Danny thought before diverting himself into a bathroom stall. He placed his bag on the ground before transforming and phasing through the wall. Looking outside, he spotted Johnny 13 and his girlfriend. Without bothering with a quip in their direction, he opted for blasting them both in the back hard enough to send them flying into trees.

"Ouch," Kitty said, slowly turning over on her side as she rose to up to a stable floating position.

"You alright Kitten?" Johnny asked with concern before turning to Danny with an angry expression. "You're going to pay for that one."

Danny didn't comment, instead deciding on firing an ecto blast in his direction. Johnny managed to move out of the way of the blast before his familiar shadow came to his aid.

"Shadow! Attack!" Johnny said, sending his shadow in Danny's direction. But Danny, already prepared for this, blew out of a steady slew of ice breath at the shadow. It froze in place, staying up in the air by the steady momentum of his ice breath. Grabbing the frozen shadow, he hurled it at Kitty and it knocked her out of the air.

"Hey! What's with you?" she asked, her tone angry. Danny's eyes flared with anger before he faced Johnny, who decided on lunging towards him since his shadow was the main thing about him that was threatening. He went for a punch, but Danny ducked it, and suddenly with the grace of his skilled mother, punched the ghost in the throat before socking him across the face and kicking him to the ground. He plummeted like a rock.

Danny suddenly turned and his hand found its way to Kitty's mouth. He imbued his hands with ice energy and froze her mouth shut. He turned his head in curiosity, unsure whether he should hurt her or not. After all, she didn't exactly hurt him.

 _"Yet,"_ he thought as an afterthought. He was brought of his pondered by her muffled, yet very heated yelling. His mind was made up, so he headbutted her in the face before sucking her in the thermos.

"Ki-" That was as far as he got before Danny blasted him into another tree. "Great. How about you just suck me in the thermos and get it over with?"

"Should I?" Danny questioned, making the ghost biker look up at him.

"Wait, you aren't-" The slightest hope that Phantom would let him go died upon said halfa hitting him with a blast that made his chest feel like his ribs got broken. Then he felt a hand on his throat as he looked up to see Phantom looking him in the eyes. He noted that one of his eyes looked slightly red. That did not look good for him.

"Should I send you back to the ghost zone? Or should I just throw you around a little bit more? I'm going to be late for class anyway and I don't mind taking out some aggression," Danny growled. A fist in his stomach took all of the hypothetical air out of Johnny and he would've fell to a knee if Phantom wasn't still holding him by the neck.

"I didn't make you angry," Johnny told him.

"That's why they call it misplaced aggression," Danny said before Johnny felt his face being jerked downward and directly into his knee. Ectoplasm flew from his nose before he felt a foot being barreled into his chest. He fell to a knee, but unfortunately, Phantom wasn't done. Ok, now Johnny could believe Phantom did the things Ember said he did. He was not happy. And obviously angry about something. And if they attacked, they were going to be his stress relievers.

"Stop ghosts!" a voice suddenly exclaimed. Danny halted from throwing another fist and turned his head idly. His parents were standing there, pointing guns at him. This had to have been a record for them getting here as fast as they did.

"Back off. Nothing around us has been getting hurt yet. If you don't mind, I have to teach this _friend_ of mine a lesson," Danny said, the word friend absolutely dripping with sarcasm. But he knew his parents and he knew what their response would be. So he just opened for freezing them in place. His parents had the nerve to call themselves ghost hunters. Well, _competent_ ghost hunters.

"Look, Phantom... how about you just..." Danny cut him off by punching him in the ribs.

"Hurt you? What an excellent idea Johnny. I didn't think you were capable of them," he said with a grin. Only, something about his grin creeped the full ghost out. He didn't know what it was. It looked the same, but it didn't feel the same.

"I was gonna say..." Johnny said, trying to recover from the pain that shot into his ribs. Man, Phantom punched hard. "...can you just shove me in that thermos of yours and let's be done with it."

"What do you think?" Danny asked, his fist crackling with green energy.

"I think... this is going to hurt a lot, isn't it?" Johnny asked.

 _"No, he's had enough,"_ part of his mind said.

 _"Not nearly enough. Besides, taking the aggression out feels good. Just like with the Box Ghost,"_ another part of his mind argued. He was having these wars with himself a lot lately.

"Save it for the person that deserves it." The lack of choice was over. He looked up at Johnny and decided to go ahead and suck him in the thermos, capping the lid shut firmly. Soon... soon Skulker would come back. He wouldn't be able to resist coming back to try and skin him for a pelt. And he would be waiting for him.

 _"What do you even plan to do? It's not as if it's going to take back what he did,"_ he thought to himself.

That was a thought that drove him insane. What was he even doing this for anyway? Revenge? What kind of revenge can you do to a ghost? You can't kill them. They're already dead. Pointless. Utterly pointless. Then... an answer came.

 _"They can't die, but they can feel pain. They can feel the last bits of the life they have now crumble around them,"_ he thought with vigor before immediately backpedaling. His thoughts were reaching something among the lines that Vlad would try to do. He didn't want to compare himself to the man.

 _"But it's true."_ As of now his mind wasn't acting like it was a part of himself waging war. No. This felt different. This felt like the ideas of a different person entirely. Yet... he couldn't help but listen. _"You see, Ember cares more about her guitar than you. Skulker cares more about hunting than your friends. Walker cares too much about rules. They all have something they care about that keeps them here. If you take that away, well, I'd say you'd be even."_

"Only Skulker. Only he deserves it," Danny told himself aloud, keeping his stance on the situation strong. "I'll deal with him, and... it'll be over."

 _"Getting back at him will be over, but what about the pain? The nightmares? The other ghost attacks. That won't fix it. If anything, it might make it worse. You need something, anything to give yourself an edge. These ghosts don't care about you and what they do to you. But you give them that courtesy. And why? They're ghosts. You're alive, even if only half. You have people worth caring about. And they'll try to take it from you."_

Somewhere out there, someone made a quote about internal wars. Whatever they said about them, they were most likely right. It felt like he was thinking these things, but he didn't really believe them. They were not ever part of his thinking before. And it would stay that way. He refused to implement them. It would be on his mind, but he just wouldn't do them. I mean, he's roughed up a couple of the ghosts already, but that's no more so than usual. He didn't send them back to the Ghost Zone needing a gurney. On stressed days, he roughed them up a little bit more than usual, but he didn't go too far.

 _"They're ghosts. There's no such thing as going to far. They have the intent to hurt you and the people who are supposed to be among the living. There's a reason they keep doing it because you don't make them not want to come back."_

Now he just had a headache. He didn't want to think about this anymore. Yes he was sad. Yes he was angry. But that doesn't mean he should have to change. Then again, it's also a perfect time to change for the better. For now, he'd just come up with some half brained excuse as to why he wasn't in class.

Fanged teeth formed into a grin as he sat in his spot with patience. All he had to do was wait...

* * *

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Johnny exclaimed with a wince.

"Stop being a baby," Kitty said simply and very sourly too.

"You're in a bad mood," Johnny noted.

"Really? What gave it away?" Ember said sarcastically, causing Johnny to glare at her.

"Not my fault Phantom's hurting us more," Johnny said with another small wince as his ribs slowly began to heal.

"No, but it is Skulker's," Ember said, her gaze darkening.

"I still can't believe he did that to you," Kitty said.

"Phantom is by no means a white knight. He'll beat all of us just the same," Ember said.

"This is different. That qualifies as abuse," Kitty said.

"Abuse? Against a ghost? Besides you all, no one gives a rat's tail about me. Walker doesn't stick up for ghost's rights. Otherwise he'd be the one trying to correct the dipstick," Ember said.

"Yeah. At the rate he's going, he's going to send Walker back to his prison with _his_ state of mind corrected," Johnny said.

"So what should we do? I do not want to have to patch Johnny up everyday as long as Phantom is pissed off," Kitty said.

"We could either stop attacking the town-"

"Like that's gonna happen," Johnny said with a roll of his eyes, making Ember glare at him hard enough to make him break eye contact.

 _"Or,_ I can wait until Phantom calls in his little _request_ about Skulker's island, and then he'll be back to normal," Ember said easily. She put emphasis on request because she knew very well that she had no choice in the matter if she wanted to keep her guitar intact.

"Ember... it's not going to be that easy. This isn't something simple like them being kidnapped. Skulker killed his friends. You know that's bound to have a more permanent effect," Kitty said, actually somewhat frightened at the prospect of having a forever angry Phantom on their tails. There's also the chance he could even get worse.

"I guess, but still. He won't stay like this forever," Ember said.

"Ember, he used my body for some 'misplaced aggression.' I don't think this'll be over like you think it will," Johnny said.

"Personally, babypop did the world a favor by doing that. Maybe he can beat some semblance of good looks into you," Ember said with a smirk.

"You dated Skulker. Your perception of good looks is very, very skewed," Johnny retorted.

"Cut it out you two. I am not in the mood," Kitty said impatiently.

"Sorry Kitten," Johnny said apologetically.

"My back's still going to be sore for a while," Kitty said, putting a hand on her back. "Can't believe he did that."

"It's certainly not something I like, but it's something I understand," Kitty and Ember both looked at the biker strangely. "Well... let's say we put one of us in his shoes."

"You mean alive again?" Ember questioned with a raised brow.

"Very funny. No, I mean having to fight all of us. Every day or every other day," Johnny said.

"No one makes him do it," Kitty said.

"And if he didn't do it, we'd rule their world with no one able to stop us. Stands to reason he hates us. And he's put up with our crap for so long. I'm sort of trying to think like Phantom is," Johnny said, making Ember frown slightly.

"It's scary," she said.

"What?" Kitty asked.

"That your boyfriend is actually starting to make a little sense," Ember said, making Johnny smile. But it was replaced by a glare not long after.

"I'm not following," Kitty said.

"Since his friends are dead, he's found the perfect reason to not take it easy on us anymore. And he's most likely not gonna go back to his old sickening good hero ways," Ember said.

"So if we go back to Amity, I'm likely going to have to be patching up Johnny every time," Kitty said.

"If your boyfriend's right. I'm not holding my breath on that, considering who we're dealing with here," Ember said, making Kitty and Johnny look at her strangely.

"Um, need I remind you that Phantom nearly choked the afterlife out of you and beat the crap out of Johnny. If that doesn't say that he's changing certainly not for our better, I don't know what will," Kitty told her friend.

"I'm not saying that the possibility of it isn't impossible, but I'm saying considering who we're dealing with, it's unlikely to happen. Do you understand how insane it is to think about the dipstick ever _wanting_ to hurt people as much as possible?" Ember questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Ok, you have a point there. But I'm saying that out of all the things that we've put him through, this might push him too far. You know he cares about those two more than anything. I'm sure you out of all people know..."

 _"Don't even go there,"_ Ember said harshly. "This is not about me. And that's completely unrelated."

"Depends on how you look at it. But hey. Nothing to do but sit back and wait. Just wait for him to get you, you tell him how to get past Skulker's crap, and he beats the living ectoplasm out of him. He either goes back to normal or just stays this way and makes attacking Amity even less fun once we lose," Kitty said.

"For our sakes and my ribs, I hope it's the first one," Johnny said.

* * *

A/N: Dropping a few hints as to what I'm doing with Danny.


	6. Chapter 6 - Changes

Silence so quiet that it was loud hung in the room as every student suddenly stared at Danny Fenton, who would've liked nothing more than to sink into the ground right now. The worst part is is that he could actually do it. The announcement about Tucker and Sam had come just like Lancer said it would. They asked for a moment of silence, and while they got it, all stares went to Danny Fenton. The urge to walk out was almost overwhelming.

 _"Don't show them anything. Just keep it together. They're just looking for something to mess with you about,"_ Danny thought as he refused to make eye contact with any of them. But it didn't stop that aching feeling that made itself known again when the principal brought up their deaths. For the students, it was their first time hearing it, but not for him. For him, it was just a blade sliding against an already open wound.

 _"Thank you. The families agreed to host the funerals on the same day, though at separate plots. If you would like to pay your respects, it will be held two days from now in the Amity Park Cemetery. May their young souls rest in peace,"_ the principal said solemnly as the microphone cut off. Didn't stop everyone in the class room from looking at him. Danny's hands balled into fists as he continued to stare at his desk. If he didn't calm down soon, his eyes were going to start glowing.

"Is there something you want to know?" he asked, his voice laced with a deadly calm that he didn't even know that was in him. There were a few flinches from the tone of his voice, but the stares on him continued.

 _"They don't take you seriously. Then again, why should you be surprised anymore?"_ Danny thought, his teeth gritting at the thought.

"That's enough," Mr. Lancer said firmly. With some hesitation, the stares were finally lifted, but Danny began to lightly scratch at his desk while his hands were balled up to try and calm himself down.

Anger seemed to be his alternative to sadness nowadays. He wasn't sure what would happen once he went to the funeral. Anger at Skulker or the misery of losing the only two friends he had. One thing was far sure. After the funeral, he was going for Skulker. And Ember would make sure if that. If she didn't, she would know what it was like to lose something. Only it was something that paled in comparison to what he lost.

 _"She's not a part of this directly, but she is a part of this now. And I don't know what I'm going to do when I find him, but something will happen,"_ Danny thought as he looked down at his desk to brood on his thoughts. Paying attention to the rest of the lesson didn't even cross his mind.

* * *

Members of the A-List table looked over at what they had dubbed the 'loser table.' Because it was where Danny Fenton and his other weird friends sat. But rather than looking over at the table with any kind of distaste or Dash looking over with a type of eagerness so he could pound Fen-turd to a pulp, today was different. They looked at the table and more specifically Fenton, not quite sure what to make of everything.

The sign that he lost his friends was more than obvious, and not just from the fact that he was sitting there by himself. The look on his face was a dead giveaway. His eyebrows were furrowed and a type of shadow was over his face, face lodged in an unhappy frown. The way he ate was almost mechanical; eyes staring at a place faraway. Almost as if he were daydreaming in class, only not quite.

Dash and Kwan, the top jocks and best friends looked at each other with an identical unsure look as they looked at Fenton. They couldn't recall a time where Fenton looked so miserable. They had seen fear, anger, hesitation, and all kinds of expressions, but the miserable look was new. Even with the way Dash treated him, he had never looked miserable. Now he looked like a battery with no electricity; moving more like a robot more than anything. As if habit alone was keeping him going.

"Dash! Dash!" The voice of Paulina Sanchez suddenly hit his ear, almost making him jump. Under normal circumstances, he would've heard her on the first call. He must've been distracted. And by Fenton of all people.

"Uh... yeah?" he asked, his voice sounding slightly dazed. Almost as if he didn't have a clue where he was.

"What's wrong with you? I've been calling you for like thirty seconds," the Latina said with a frown, obviously not used to being ignored. Much less by Dash, who paid her a lot of attention.

"Oh. It's Fenton," Dash said with a point from his right index finger. Paulina looked where Dash was pointing and her frown deepened ever so slightly at the sight of him. Then she looked back at Dash.

"So?" she questioned with an almost unnoticeable shrug of her shoulders.

"Never seen him like this before. I mean, no beating I ever gave him made him look like this," Dash said. The more he looked at him, the more some weird sensation started making its way to the surface.

"He'll get over it. I mean, more like when he's done with school. He's got no one else here," Paulina said, checking her face in her mirror. The way she said it wasn't necessarily cold, but the carelessness of which she said it was almost as bad.

Dash turned around just in time to see Fenton stand to his feet and throw his tray away before leaving the lunchroom immediately. Then he stopped suddenly. His shoulders tensed and Dash wondered if he was about to have a seizure or something. He didn't, but he did leave the cafeteria with more urgency. What, was he making a break to get out of the school? He's done the same, and under less understandable circumstances. Personally, he wasn't surprised Fenton did it as much as he could.

* * *

"Not in the mood for this," Danny grumbled as he transformed while striding down the empty hallway. Green eyes quickly took the place of blue, and those eyes were steadily searching the middle hallway. With reflexes that came with over a year of fighting ghosts, he turned on his heel and grabbed whoever flew at him by the throat. An ecto blast appeared in the hand of whoever was holding it, but he easily headbutting the person in the face to knock them back before they could shoot it. A very dissatisfied grimace was brought to Danny's face.

"Penelope," he said, his hands glowing with green energy. "Should've known you'd show up sooner or later."

"How could I not considering these wonderful circumstances?" Spectra said with a wide grin on her face. He always hated the sadism of his woman. Her very purpose was to suck the happiness out of everyone just so she could stay young. Definitely one of the ghosts he hated the most. "I mean, I notice your friends aren't-" She never got to continue as she was blasted back by a powerful ecto blast. While the blast definitely hurt, the misery that trickled from him made her smile despite the pain.

"Oh, you always were easy to provoke Phantom," she said, her grin growing even wider.

"If I was even easier, I would let you rot in the thermos. Or burn you like the witch you are," Danny said before floating up to her faster than she could react and punching her in the face. The force made her float down a few inches, but she came back up with a blow of her own. Then she felt her arm being grabbed, followed up by a hand to her throat. Then she groaned from the force she was slammed into the ground by. It was enough to crack the floor.

"I'm not the one who let his friends die, now am I?" she said, her voice coming out slightly strained than before.

 _"She keeps pushing you. So what? You just going to put her in the thermos_ hero?" a part of Danny's mind said as he went for the Thermos. But there was hesitancy. The grin on her face made his skin prickle with anger. Just here to try and suck whatever misery she could from him. Then a sniff from her brought Danny back to the present. To his distaste, she was looking younger.

"Oh, please do continue Danny. You're like a fine meal right now," she said as she managed to use her feet to knock him back. But he didn't fall flat. He flew back towards her as fast as he could and attempted to punch her in the stomach with all the force he had, but she had to moved to the side. The floor cracked even more as he planted his fist inside of the floor, promptly removing it and raising a hand to create a shield to block the blast she sent his way.

A low growl escaped from his throat as he shifted the shield into a rope. Like with Ember, he wrapped it around her throat and used it to pull her towards him. Soon as she was close, he punched her to the floor with all of his might.

A gasp of pain escaped Spectra's throat. She could feel that he was miserable, which is what kept her on her feet from how hard he was hitting. But the more miserable he got, his anger grew ten times worse. Misery didn't make him helpless like before. It just made him angrier. As she looked towards him, one of his eyes shifted into a more red hue. Then it settled on the color. Almost as if Phantom had been possessed by Plasmius. But it was only one eye. The other one was an emerald green with rage shining behind the pupil.

 _"Hone the anger. Hone the power. Make them understand."_ The voice that spoke didn't even sound like himself anymore. It was something more twisted, something angrier and more vengeful. As he raised his hand to charge it with an ecto blast, the color wasn't green. It was a dark, bloody red.

"Let's find out if ghosts bleed, shall we?" he said, his voice filled with a dark undertone. Spectra did not expect herself to shiver. To anyone. But her own body betrayed her. This didn't feel like the Phantom she knew. The way he was acting now was, as much as she hated to admit it, far more terrifying than anything she had seen before. Vlad's power coupled with his resources made him dangerous, scary even. But it was more like fear was acting as a aura around Phantom. Eyes that once held righteousness held more malicious intent. And those eyes were on her.

"Oh, sh-" Her sentence was cut off by a sudden ecto-enhanced punch that sent her flying down the hallway. But he wasn't done. As she was flying down the hallway, she was propelled even faster by another punch as he kept catching up to her until she was knocked out of the school and through a tree. Her ribs were cracked from the force of all of those punches. That was for certain. There was no time to count her blessings Phantom came from out of the wall, his hands still glowing red.

"You know, I'm starting to understand how things work more," Danny said as he floated down to her. With the force of a bullet, her attempt to hit him was quelled immediately by a punch to her head that had her skull ringing like a bell. He never punched this hard before. In fact, he didn't punch much to be quite honest.

"You enjoy misery. Most of the other ghosts in the Ghost Zone want nothing more to kill me. And what do I do? I don't do what you do," Danny said as he grabbed her arm and twisted it. She bit her tongue hard trying to scream from the pain, but it was hard. Ghosts couldn't breathe, but they still had bones and organs like an actual person. Never before had any ghost ever gave her the experience of breaking one of her bones. That changed now.

"But I'm understanding more now," he continued, his voice lined with a darker echo now. "That's exactly what what you like. That's exactly what you prey on. My unwillingness to hurt you like you hurt me. Like Skulker hurt Sam and Tucker. You don't care about us. And you never have. Tell why I should even care about you? Tell me why I shouldn't hurt you as much as I can just like you try to hurt me. I've healed broken bones, burn marks, cuts, bruises. I've got enough dirty bandages at the bottom of my garbage can to support to that statement. Perhaps I should start making you feel the same way. I want to share my misery with you. Only not in the way you like."

"You're insane," Spectra managed to say, making Danny laugh. From how lighthearted it sounded, it sounded like it was the Danny Phantom that didn't break arms.

"Says the so called 'psychiatrist.' _I_ may be insane, but _he_ certainly isn't," he said with a grin on his face. "Give that pathetic servant of yours my condolences." Suddenly, with the force of a bullet, she felt herself being lifted by the neck and thrown in the air.

With a twirl of his hands, he summoned a rope to his hand and slammed her towards the ground, a large crack sounding through the air. That was her spine. And this time she really did yell out. That was way too much for her to handle.

As if she were dead weight, he then spun around in a circle. She hit every tree on her broken arm, and while this wouldn't have hurt all that much on a healed arm, a force powerful enough to break tress in half like candy bars hitting her broken limb was a bit different. Then she found herself on the ground from another punch, her bottom lip busting open from the force. She couldn't die from this. She knew that. Ghosts couldn't die like humans could. But this would result in quite a healing process. A long and agonizing one.

"Feel that? That's pain you're feeling. Pain so intense that it almost consumes you. Pain that I know well. So many times. But I've learned to deal with it. I doubt you have," Danny said as he raised her head to make her look up at him. "I'm in no hurry to get back to school. In fact, I don't care if I go back today. But the question is whether or not you've learned your lesson. Whether or not I should dump you on your doorstep and slowly heal or leave you in the thermos to feel it more."

 _"I... what the hell?"_ Danny thought, suddenly shaking his head. He himself wasn't one for cursing at all, never mind aloud, but these weird blackouts were getting too strange to ignore.

 _"You'll find out soon,"_ a voice in the back of his mind said. But it felt different. It wasn't like these conflicted thoughts he had with himself. This voice felt like it had its own mind. But it was strange how he felt so close, so... drawn to it. _"You'll start to understand. Soon you will. I'm sure if you're as smart as I think you are, you'll figure it out for yourself."_

"Wait!" he yelled aloud, but he could feel the strange presence of the voice go. Under normal circumstances, Penelope would've easily prodded him about the random yell he gave off. But now she was more focused on how to make her body ache less. Then she felt her body being sucked into the thermos.

"Am I going insane?" Danny said as he held his head and put the thermos up.

 _"Not insane, no. You're learning. You're being taught,"_ a dark voice said with light tones of humor and satisfaction in its voice. _"I'd say you're becoming exactly what you need to be. A monster to the monstrous."_

* * *

Ember groaned as she heard a knock on her door. But it was followed by the door just opening without her consent. Looking up impatiently, she saw Kitty with her back turned to her as she backed into the room.

"Can I just have one day where I just sit on the couch and do no... thing..." Ember cut herself off as she saw the state of Penelope when they had to support her into the house.

"He's getting worse Ember," Kitty said impatiently. "Broke her arm, her spine, and beat her like an abused housewife. Still think this'll be over after all is said and done?" The question was very much rhetorical.

"Spare me you trying to prove your obnoxious point and tell me what happened," Ember said as she got to her feet so Penelope could sit down.

"Well, when you told me that Phantom's friends died, I figured I could get a nice feed in. And..."

 _"And_ you can't tell me that I told you so, because I did!" Kitty exclaimed, making Spectra wince slightly. From her injuries and the sound of Kitty's voice.

"Yeah, yeah. You were right. That does not help the fact that my injuries are taking a while to heal. My spine is still screaming, and I can barely move my arm," Penelope said, wincing as she tried to move her previously broken arm. "Never expected Phantom to hit that hard. Or be as intimidating as he was. Red ecto blasts, a red eye..."

"Wait, that's new. Red blasts?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah. They hurt more than his regular ones too," Spectra said.

"I think it's the fact that he doesn't care about not hurting us anymore. He split his power levels with clones when I fought him after they died, and they hurt. Felt like I was about to be split open if he kept hitting me with it," Ember said.

"Ok, so we got a pissed off Phantom who hurts us more and more each time we attack him. I say we wait until Phantom calls in his deal with Ember and hope he goes back to the way he was before so we can move on with our lives," Johnny said.

"For once, I agree with you. Instead of making him helpless, misery just makes him angrier now," Spectra said.

"But as far as going into town just to start a fight, I'm thinking about not doing that anymore," Johnny continued, making the three women in the room look at him strangely.

"Is your boyfriend insane?" Spectra asked Kitty.

"More like I don't have a desire to have Phantom treat me like a crash test dummy. Like, he hurt you worse than he did me the other day. And I have the feeling that he's just going to hurt us more and more. I suggest you think about the same thing Kitten," Johnny said, looking at her seriously. The serious look on his face threw her for a loop for a moment. And she couldn't deny that he had a point.

"Er... I'll think about it," Kitty said.

"You two are insane. Getting rid of Phantom sounds even better idea now. He's just going to be an even more pain in the sign," Spectra said.

"And it'll be even more of a death wish! I'd rather stay in the Ghost Zone rather than find him and get my ass kicked before getting sent back in. It's not like a bruise here or cut there than I can shake off. No, I had to get Kitty help me patch myself up because the wounds were so bad. And he could do worse than what he did to me. So excuse me if I value having my body in one piece," Johnny explained, sarcasm in his voice.

"Oh, boy. Ember? What about you?" Spectra asked.

"He might have a point," Ember said in a resigned tone as she had her arms crossed. Pain was not favorable for her. Before Phantom went off the deep end, she didn't get hurt very much. And her healing factor helped with dealing with what little damage she did took. Unfortunately, all of that seemed to have changed.

"Are you all insane?" Spectra asked as she looked at everyone around her.

"No. We're just not masochists," Johnny said.

"What I like to do behind closed doors is none of your business," Spectra said, making Johnny reel in disgust.

"Ergh! I wasn't serious!" he exclaimed, making Kitty roll her eyes.

"So was she. _I hope,"_ Kitty said, thinking the last part. "Enough of that. Penelope, things are not looking great when it comes to invading Amity. It's not like I even live for causing trouble. Maybe there are better things to do with our time."

"Like what?" Spectra asked.

"Like partying," Johnny suddenly interjected.

"Oh, grow up, would you?" Spectra asked, making Johnny roll his eyes.

"Oh, yeah. Because wanting to party means I haven't grown up. Makes a lot of sense," he said.

"If you two don't shut up, I'm going to kick you out," Ember said, her tone annoyed. Spectra's mouth snapped shut. She wasn't getting thrown out on these wounds. "In any case, I myself don't want to have to keep healing myself after fighting the dipstick. I'll have to come up with something else to pass the time I guess."

"Since when did you people stop having fun?" Spectra asked.

"Since we liked not getting our asses kicked ten times worse than before," Johnny said.

* * *

A/N: Ideas are coming into play. There's an idea I definitely want to get going with Danny, but I also want to make some emphasis on some changes with the ghosts. The idea that Danny is hurting them a lot more for invading the town can definitely changed whether or not you want to keep doing something. It's basically masochism at that point.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Funeral

Maddie Fenton looked at her son he stood near the door with his hands in his pockets, staring out of the window; similar to how a businessman would look out of his twenty story office, observing what was below him. Pondering. Thinking.

Shortly after Danny got back from school two days ago, Sam's parents came around and told them about the funeral. The news shocking everyone but Danny, who already knew. She had to pay attention to the little things now as he had gotten a lot more secretive, and his reactions... It was a mixture of all sorts of things, but pain was a dominating emotion on his face. Pain as if he had gotten punched in the stomach, but hadn't keeled over.

There was something, anything she wanted to do to comfort him as soon as she found out. But he just shrugged her away and left the room. Jazz left immediately for her brother's room right after. It was common knowledge that he was closer to his friends than he was his family. After a bit, Jazz seemed to replicate that kind of closeness. But it left her and Jack in the dark because they never understood what was going with him. The fact drove her nuts. It was her job as a mother to figure what was wrong with her kids.

"This stupid tie," Jack said, trying his hardest to try and tie the frustrating piece of clothing.

"Here honey," Maddie said gently before moving over to help him with the tie. But her eyes moved back over to Danny. He seemed to have no problems tying his tie. He was dressed down in an immaculate suit. She smiled gently from how handsome he looked. But the eyes are what got you. Beautiful, bright blue eyes that she had seen with many different emotions. But she had never seen them filled with a type of... lost look. A distinct dim.

"You all ready?" Danny suddenly asked. Maddie finished Jack's tie while blinking really fast before turning towards Danny.

"Soon. Jazz is still upstairs getting ready," she told him. He nodded before beginning to pace around the room. But then he stopped as his sensitive hearing picked up footsteps on the stairs. He smiled gently at his sister. At the least he still had one person who knew more about the situation just like he did. How he wished this whole thing was a nightmare orchestrated by Nocturne. But he knew very well that he was awake.

"Alright, so we're ready to go," Danny said. Jack moved to say something, but Danny was already out of the door. He looked at his wife with worry on his face, and she mirrored the look. Jack's shoulders deflated. He so desperately wanted to help his son, but he just pushed them away. He was like this when his friends were still alive, but the gesture still hurt. The fact that he didn't trust them enough to open himself up to them. They couldn't understand how he felt. Because he wouldn't tell them.

 _"To think I would've cared a few weeks ago if we were traveling in this stupid vehicle,"_ Danny thought as they piled in his dad's stupid ghost assault vehicle.

Jazz looked at her brother with a worried look. She couldn't recall a time where she saw him look so downcast. His blue eyes somehow looked more dim just from the more hollow look in them. It hurt her to see him so downcast. Her strong, ghost-fighting brother looking as if he had given up all hope. So she awkwardly moved her hands out to pull him closer.

Danny immediately flinched away as if electrocuted and she pulled her hands back a couple of inches before moving forward again to try and pull him closer.

"It's ok," Jazz said softly. Danny looked at his sister sadly before he stopped resisting. He laid his head on her shoulder and she put her hand on his left shoulder. There was comfort in the gesture. He knew she wasn't there. She didn't see what happened. She didn't know what it really felt like, but at the same time, there was more understanding. Maybe because he knew that she understood more than anyone else who was alive how difficult his life was. He didn't complain about it. No. Even though it could ruin his future. But he had his friends and Jazz to help him when he needed it. Now...

Maddie looked back in the backseat and saw that Danny had his head on Jazz's shoulder. She smiled to see the fact that someone was able to give him some comfort. More than ever, she wanted Danny to know that he was not alone. She just wished he felt he could act the same way around his parents. The relationship with the people around him was always different than most people. She saw even more of that today.

"Skulker did it," Danny whispered to Jazz. She looked at him and saw that he was trembling. But there was no sadness in his gaze. It was determination and fury.

"What do you think you'll do?" she whispered back so her parents wouldn't hear. He closed his eyes and once they opened, they were bright green and full of anger.

"Payback," Danny said through gritted teeth. Jazz saw her parents' gaze start to shift over to them, so she didn't press further. But at the same time, she didn't quite like what the word meant. Payback to a ghost? How would that even end? What would he even do?

Without a word, Danny got out of the vehicle when it stopped. He straightened his clothes as he stood erect. His dad parked right outside the cemetery, and by the looks of the amount of cars around here, Sam and Tucker's families were already here. The stares he felt at the back of his skull made him draw in his shoulders. So he just opted on walking in the cemetery gate and heading towards the funeral.

 _"Oh, right. They're burying them at separate plots,"_ Danny thought with a displeased frown. Who was he going to see first? He hated that this was a decision. He really didn't want to be here very long. The longer he was here, the more that the situation would eat away at him. So he had to decide quick.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump and it was his dad's beefy hand. There was sympathy in his look and the look deflated him a little more, but he smiled gently at him. Maybe it was some vain attempt to make it seem like he didn't look as in pain as he felt.

"Who we going to see first?" his dad asked. Danny looked between the two separate areas and when he raised his hand, he found his finger pointing towards where they were burying Tucker. Jazz and his mom had caught up and he looked at them briefly before nodding and heading towards Tucker's plot.

Danny had to restrain himself from putting his head down when he walked over to Tucker's parents. The sad looks on their faces transferred to him, and there was guilt. Damned guilt for something that he couldn't have stopped. He was there, but he couldn't have stopped him... Ghost powered _hero_ Danny Phantom...

With a hesitant hand, he put a hand on the side of the coffin. He was kind of glad they didn't have to go to any type of open casket thing. He might've broken down from the sight of his dead friend. Even as he stared at the closed coffin, his ability to stay strong was dwindling.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Foley," Danny heard his parents say. Danny stayed silent as he heard a crunch of rocks right next to him to signal someone was positioned next to him.

"I can tell it's not easy," Jazz said, putting a hand on her brother's shoulder.

"No. It's not. Just standing here makes me wish even more than before that this was some horrible nightmare I'm going to wake up from soon," Danny said as he ran his hand over the lid of the coffin. "I shouldn't have to be standing here. I shouldn't know what it's like to have people you love be taken from you. Neither of them should've died like that. They didn't deserve that. They deserved far better."

"So do you," Jazz said as she quieted her voice. She saw out of the corner of her eye that the adults were watching them. "After everything you've done for this town... after everything you've been through... I just wish better things had happened."

"It's one of life's cruel jokes. Bad things happen to good people. One of life's biggest jokes. But I'm not laughing. I just have all of this grief and all of this anger and I only have one idea as to what to do with it. After that, what's left?" Danny said, curling his fingers. If he had remotely long nails, he would've scratched the coffin.

"The only thing I can tell you is to take it one day at a time. Give the... fighting a break, take time off, anything," Jazz said, selectively choosing her words because she started to become more aware of the fact that the adults were approaching them.

"Danny... the undertaker is here," Maddie said gently. Danny turned towards her and sighed sadly before backing up. Then he looked over to where they were burying Sam. He could see that her mother was crying in a handkerchief and her dad was holding her close and comforting her. Then he turned back to Tucker's now descending coffin. He knew once he was lowered in that coffin, that was it. He wasn't coming back.

"We can go see Sam now. If you..."

"Yeah. We can go," Danny said sadly, backing away from Tucker's grave. He knew he was coming back. There was no way he was forgetting about them any time soon.

"Stop." A voice he had never heard before made him look up. There was a man dressed in a suit and he was holding his hand out.

"What's the problem?" Jack asked.

"The Mansons wished to grieve in private. You can come here after they leave," the man said, making Danny's gaze instantly snap to the man's.

"Excuse me?" he questioned, his voice somehow managing to come out calm.

"Move along please," he said.

"I'm not waiting. This place is public and the right to prevent people from going into a certain area should not extend to the rich just because they have money," Danny said through gritted teeth. Jazz knew that this was going to lead to something. Either the man was going to let them through because he has some inkling of a conscience, or this situation was going to get ugly.

"Danny..." his mom started, but he wasn't having none of it.

"No. I'm not letting some rich privileged idiots run me out of here just because they have enough money to hire people to keep people away. Now... move or I will _make_ you move," Danny said, his voice filled with venom as he stepped forward. The man's eyes slightly narrowed. He could've sworn his eyes were blue just a moment ago. And he looked angry enough to actually want to attack him.

"Alright, I'm going to have to ask you to back..." The mistake during his speech was that he put a hand on his shoulder. Between anger and natural reaction timing, he acted in the worst way possible. He flipped the guy over by the arm to where he ended up on his back, and had he not been as upset as he was, he wouldn't have broke the guy's arm. But he did. The loud crunch and yell of pain was a dead giveaway.

"Danny!" Maddie exclaimed, her eyes widening as she saw him break the man's arm. She didn't even know Danny was that strong. He made it look like he had done things like that for a long time. And that raised the question. Did he?

"He wouldn't move," Danny said simply before straightening his tie and letting out a breath through his nose. Like Tucker or god forbid Sam would let some asshats with money tell them they can't do something. Granted, those asshats were Sam's family, but it's a point nonetheless. So he continued forward.

They had already buried her. I mean, in a way, that made it easier to take in the sight. Until he stared at the gravestone. That was what got under his skin. Then Sam's parents looked up at him.

"How'd you get over here?" Sam's mom asked, her voice watery from her tears but still managing to find an inkling of suspicion.

"We got past him. You have absolutely no right to keep me from seeing her," Danny said, anger in his tone.

"She is our daughter. We-"

"And she is my best friend! What kind arrogance do you have to where you can make people who care about her just as much as you stay away? You self-righteous prissy little bit-"

"Danny!" both Jack and Maddie exclaimed, which made Danny calm down a little. Just enough to keep his eyes from turning green again. He had to get a lid on his anger. But he could never see eye to eye with this woman.

"Look, we don't need to fight. Not now. Not while we're burying two kids today. It's wrong," Maddie said.

"Mom's right. Look, I can tell there's animosity between you two..."

"Oh ho ho. That's an understatement. They never could stand me without even knowing me," Danny said, eyeing the parents with anger in his gaze. "But I have no reason to play nice with them. Not anymore."

 _"But..."_ Jazz continued, emphasizing the word. "...we can call a truce for now. In agreement to respect the dead."

"I won't say anything to you if you don't say anything to me," Danny said, forcing his tone to stay calm.

"Ok," Sam's dad said before his wife could open her mouth. Danny turned towards him and nodded in some semblance of respect. At least he didn't seem as selfish as his wife.

Danny opted on sitting in front of the grave with his family gathering around him. What a mockery his life was. A supposed hero. Supposed to protect people from ghosts. And couldn't even protect those closest to him. And now he was alone.

 _"Well..."_ Danny thought as he looked at Jazz. _"Not completely alone."_

But there were things his sister couldn't do. Like help with school. Stay out at nights and help him with ghost hunting. She had school to go to and goals to achieve. He couldn't do the same because he was stuck fighting ghosts. Would be so easy to give up now. But that was just something he couldn't do. He knew Sam would crack his skull if he tried, which made him smile a little in a watery fashion.

 _"Couldn't drop a subject she believed in to save her life,"_ he thought, his thoughts rising slightly at the thought. _"But that's what made Sam. Loyal to a fault. Stubborn, but had a good heart. A good friend too."_

The last thought made him frown a little. There was that strange thought again. Given enough time, would they have escalated to more than just friends? The fake out make outs were situational, but they were somewhat nice even though they were forced more than anything. Was he attracted to her? At times, yes. At times, no. Wasn't like he would ever get to find out where they would've ended up. Cause both her and Tucker were dead.

He felt something on his dress pants. It caused him to shift his gaze over to the spot where he felt it and it was a wet spot. He was crying. He knew he was. But he didn't make a sound. Mourning in silence seemed to be his thing. Not showing how weak he was on the outside.

Then he felt gentle arms pull him in. He didn't look up. He didn't dare look up. But as much as he tried to fight it, a sob wrenched itself free from the back of his throat.

"It's ok honey," his mom said, her hand rubbing his back in a comforting way. It broke her heart to see him this way. She didn't wish pain like this on her child. She didn't wish pain like this on anyone's child.

* * *

Sitting there was pointless. What did he have to gain by just sitting in the middle of a cemetery, looking back and forth between where his friends were buried? He didn't know why. He just sat here, not really knowing what to do next.

"Disheartening, isn't it?" a familiar voice said. But it was a voice that made him tighten his fists in anger.

"What do you want Vlad?" he questioned with barely restrained anger.

"Calm down child. I'm not here to fight," Vlad said, raising his hands in surrender before slowly lowering them.

"Then why are you here?" Danny asked in a snap. Vlad walked around to get in front of Danny's face and sat down in front of him. He raised an eyebrow in slight wariness and suspicion, but Vlad didn't make a move to transform, attack him, or anything.

"While your desire for vengeance is a much better improvement than your very crippling hero complex that you had when I first met you, I would hope you at least have a plan as to how you're going to get the person. Starting with finding out who the person was," he told him. Danny looked up. He wasn't even going to ask how he even knew he was going after Skulker.

"I already know who did t. I was there when it happened," Danny said darkly. "And as for getting there, I don't have to worry about that either. All I have to do is..."

"What? What _are_ you going to do? There isn't much you can do to a ghost. They don't face justice like they would in any sickeningly moral society," Vlad pressed.

"I know that! What, do you think I was born yesterday? Walker punishes ghosts for the fun of it, not because he actually cares about enforcing any sort of law. No, I'm handling this myself," Danny said with a hard tone.

"And how you are you going to do that?" Vlad questioned.

"I don't- gah! I don't know what I'm going to do when I get there! Dammit Vlad, I just have to do something! Anything! I lost them! Forever! They're not coming back as ghosts. They're dead and gone. And I don't care what I do when I get to Skulker, but when I get to him, I _will_ make him pay for what he did," Danny said, his tone venomous. Desire for vengeance, a desire to hurt someone as badly as he felt was never an urge he had before. He wanted to teach Dash lessons on occasions, but it was nothing this raw. Nothing this... necessary.

"Welcome to walking a mile into my shoes," Vlad said simply.

"Oh, put a sock in it, you cheese head," Danny snapped at him. "My dad didn't mean to turn you into a half ghost. I don't recall you ever talking with him after the accident."

"Because I spent years in a hospital!" Vlad snapped, suddenly on his feet.

"And your life got better because of it. Come on, like the idea of being one of the richest people in the world because of your ghost powers doesn't please you. And before you start talking about how you would rather have mom than your riches, stop acting like you couldn't find a woman just as good given your reputation," Danny told him.

"And you think I haven't tried something as abhorrently simple as that? My reputation is exactly why... This is not about me," Vlad said, cutting himself off.

"It fully well is. Because you still have an opportunity to have friends. I've lost mine. Let go. And... hey, you'll have something else I don't have anymore," Danny said with a shrug.

"That's not what this is supposed to be about," Vlad said with a frown.

"But it's true. Look, I learned in the rudest way possible that life is about as sudden as it gets. Make up with them before there is no chance to," Danny said before standing to his feet. "Now... I have business to take care of."

"Skulker?" Vlad questioned, making Danny nod. "If you set on a goal of revenge, do yourself a favor and try to do it right."

"You mean you're not going to try to stop me?" Danny questioned with a raised brow.

"Briefly. But I decided to replicate the closeness Jack and I used to have with my current demeanor and abilities. I would kill whoever caused his death slowly and painfully. So I will not deny you this," Vlad said. Danny nodded, and briefly, he felt as if he understood the man. It may have been for only this moment, but it was a moment. Then Danny transformed and took to the skies. Time to find Ember.


	8. Chapter 8 - Lessons That Stick

"What are you doing here?" Ember asked, her hand on the door while leaning slightly to the side.

"Don't act dumb. Why else would I come here? Do whatever you need to do, but you're going to show me what's on Skulker's island," Danny said.

"What, you scared of Skulker?" Ember said with a smirk.

"Please. I've turned his suit into scrap metal time and time again. I will, however, address how potentially dangerous his traps are. And you are my answer," Danny said crossing his arms.

"You think Skulker out of all people would make traps that could be dangerous?" Ember questioned, her eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Skulker? The same guy who claims to be the world's greatest hunter and can't even find a TV remote?"

"Better to be safe than sorry. Besides, if there's nothing serious, then you should have nothing to worry about," Danny said simply.

"Other than wasting my time. Fine," Ember said, putting her guitar around her body and taking to the air with the halfa.

During this time, Ember couldn't help but take a few glances at Phantom. Everything about him was just... off. He wasn't smiling. He wasn't carefree, he wasn't smiling. His eyes looked angry and his jaw was locked. It reminded her of Kitty when she was pissed off at someone. Only ten times worse.

"Stop looking at me," Danny said, his voice coming out in a low growl.

"You look so... strange," Ember said.

"I'm angry. What do you think?" Danny said impatiently.

"That's what's weird," Ember said.

"What, I can't get angry?" Danny questioned.

"More like I haven't seen you angry where you look ready to kill someone. That's our job," Ember said, sounding almost indignant.

"Ask me something. Can ghosts regenerate their tongues?" Danny asked.

"What do you..." Then it hit her. It made her snap her mouth shut immediately. "Look I know you're upset, but that's no excuse for being an asshole."

"No, it doesn't. However, dealing with all of your attacks on the city does. That certainly gives me the right to be an 'asshole,'" Danny said as he looked over to her in flight. And his look of anger was changed to something more familiar. Irritation. Well, that made her less feel like he was going to blast her if she said something out of line.

"Well, there it is," Danny said, pointing over at Skulker's island. Then he looked at Ember and jerked his head towards the location, signaling that she had to go first. Part of her was actually kind of excited to see Skulker get his butt handed to him. That would make being bossed around by Phantom around almost worth it. _Almost._ _No one_ bossed her around. The person who tried usually got an injury because of it. Phantom was that one exception because _she_ would go around nursing some injuries if she tried to make him 'learn.'

Ember floated onto the island before stopping about a meter from the land. Danny stopped next to her before looking at her.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Just remembered that there's a sensor to detect anyone that comes on the island without permission. At least if you try to fly in. He was at least smart enough to install that. I have to say that you might be out of luck if you want to get to him without him knowing," Ember told him, making Danny silently curse.

 _"Oh, but there is an solution. One Skulker could never account for,"_ a voice inside Danny's head said. He didn't know if he somehow grew an extra personality or whether someone was just talking to him telepathically.

"And what's that?" Danny asked aloud, making Ember look at him strangely. Who was he even talking to?

 _"Transform back. The scanner is designed to detect ghosts, not humans. And 'realistically,' what human would be 'wise' enough travel to his island? The island of 'the greatest hunter of the Ghost Zone,'"_ the voice said, obvious finger quotes in their voice. It would've made Danny laugh if the situation wasn't as serious as it was.

 _"Are you serious?"_ Danny thought, suddenly wising up and knowing that whoever this was could hear his thoughts. _"I don't how to use my powers out of my ghost form."_

 _"Don't worry. I'll help you. Just this once. Then you're going to have to learn. In ways... easier than I did. Listen to my directions. Using your powers out of your ghost form requires a lot more focus than using them in it. Simply because your ectoplasmic DNA takes priority over your human DNA while you are in this form. That is why Walker's ghost jail can hold your ghost form, but not your human one even though you are half ghost. Each of your forms has their own advantages and disadvantages,"_ the voice explained. It was weird how a voice so deep and echo-y could sound so knowledgeable on demand.

 _"How does that tie into using my powers without my ghost form?"_ Danny questioned.

 _"Well, with enough focus, you can simply will your ectoplasmic DNA to take priority over your human DNA, which in turn, allows you to use your powers in your human form. This can work the other way around with your ghost form. You ever find yourself trapped in a ghost shield? Will your human DNA to take priority over your ghost DNA, and simply walk out. Then immediately revert the priorities and wreak havoc,"_ the voice said, a dark grin easing into its voice.

 _"You seem to know a lot about me. Is this something Plasmius knows how to do?"_ Danny questioned.

 _"He can do it well. How else can he make a clone of himself that looks human, and by all ghost technology is concerned, is human? With enough practice, you yourself will be able to do it. But for now, let's focus on the here and now. A lesson for another time, if you will. Now, transform back. I'll take care of the rest,"_ the voice told him. Danny had his apprehensions about the whole thing, but he transformed back, it was not like he could transform back on demand and save himself.

"Here goes nothing," Danny said as he transformed back into his human form. Ember watched him, her eyes widening at the sight. Did he suddenly lose consciousness or something?

Danny's heart lurched for a second when he fell about a good meter, but almost immediately, he felt like he sort of took the backseat of his own mind. Then he was floating. In his human form. He looked at his hands before closing them into fists as he looked up at the island.

"What do you know?" he said with a smile.

"What are you doing?" Ember asked, tilting her head at him. Danny looked at her, and grinned. Suddenly, she was getting that feeling of the old Phantom again. And the others thought Phantom would stay like a vengeful person forever. She was definitely rubbing that in Kitty and Johnny's faces.

"An idea had just... came to me. I have an idea. Remain here," Danny said as he floated onto the island. Ember looked at him, expecting alarms to go off, but nothing. Absolutely nothing. How was he even doing that?

 _"This is awesome,"_ Danny thought with a grin.

 _"I figured you would say something like that. It is certainly useful, that is for sure,"_ the voice told him evenly. _"To do this, you must have absolute will over your body's form. Right down to the atom. The closest thing you've achieved is a ghostly tail for extra flight speed. That's all. There is far more to learn."_

 _"Just... who are you? And why are you teaching me this stuff?"_ Danny questioned. He couldn't see the voice, but he swore he saw a flash of white teeth in a smiling fashion that almost looked feral. Not in his eyelids, but just in his mind.

 _"Oh, we'll get to that at another date. Once I'm... relatively sure you can handle the truth,"_ the voice said, mentally leading Danny over to the top of Skulker's island. _"There's a machine that sends out a signal right on the forehead. Destroy it."_

Danny looked where he told him to look, and there it was. A small red flashing beacon that wasn't bigger than the size of a button. It was really easy to miss. Danny smashed it with a punch and the pieces rolled down the statue quickly.

 _"Transform,"_ the voice told him, letting go of his control and Danny quickly reverted back once he found out he wasn't in the backseat of his mind anymore. He recovered, and when he looked around, there was no alarm going off. No Skulker coming out with his suit ready. He still had the element of surprise. That was good.

"It's off. So can we just fly in?" he asked Ember.

"Mostly. The actual entrance is on ground level. I'm not exactly sure how many traps he put down there because it was never required for me to go on ground level, so given how over confident he is in his own hunting skills, _too_ overconfident I might add, he might not have put any security around the door. Probably not even a lock," Ember told him.

"Probably is still something we have to be aware of, so make note of that. Let's fly to the door," Danny said as he turned and immediately floated down to the door. But stopped about halfway. He rolled his eyes at the simplicity of putting a bear trap at his front door.

 _"That's a pleasant way to greet guests. Oh, wait! It's very doubtful that he gets any since Ember! How could I forget?"_ Danny thought sarcastically. But he simply froze the trap before landing on it and shattering it. Ember then landed next to him. And rolled her eyes.

"A bear trap? Really Skulker?" she questioned aloud.

"Pleasant way to greet guests, don't you think?" Danny said dryly. Ember almost laughed. Probably would've if she wasn't talking to who she was talking to.

"Like he got any besides me," Ember said as she tried the door. "Locked. And we can't phase through it. He was at least smart enough to do that."

 _"With enough focus, you can simply will your ectoplasmic DNA to take priority over your human DNA. This can work the other way around with your ghost form."_ Danny remembered the what the person talking to him in his head said(which itself sounded insane), and he looked at his hands before clenching them tightly.

 _"Ok, I can do this. Concentrate. Just will your human DNA in front of your ghost DNA. It's not that hard. Right?"_ Danny questioned in his head as he closed his eyes tightly and tried to focus. Ember looked at him strangely.

"Do you need to go to the bathroom dipstick?" she questioned.

"Shut up. I'm concentrating," Danny said, trying to focus his DNA.

 _"Concentrate. You're not concentrating. You're_ think _you're concentrating,"_ the voice told him. _"True concentration means you're thinking of nothing but what you're trying to change. Focus on nothing else."_

Taking a deep breath, his mind tried to go back to all of those lectures in biology about how DNA looked. Then it became green. There was just the matter of making it turn back to it's original colorful thread. It was all about getting that color to change...

Ember had her arms crossed as she blew out a puff of breath and looking at the sky. Now she was just standing here, waiting for Phantom to finish... whatever the hell he was doing. She had half a mind to leave now. She showed him what he needed to know. It looked like he had the rest of it himself.

"You coming?" Danny suddenly asked. Ember blinked before she looked up and saw that he got the door open, making her eyes widen.

"How'd you..."

"Magic," he said flatly. "You can go if you want, but I get the feeling you don't particularly like Skulker. You don't seem as grudging to do this as I expected."

"If the ghost fighting doesn't work out, you could become a detective," Ember said dryly.

"I'll think about it. Now shush," Danny said, putting a finger on her lip to quiet her. She was about to yell her head off before the sounds of footsteps caught up with her. They both turned invisible at the same time, and then Skulker's metal boots came into view along with the rest of him. The sight of him reminded Danny of the missiles... Sam's scream of his name in panic... both her and Tucker flying through the air motionless...

With a snarl from his throat that made Ember jump, Danny lunged at Skulker with a punch to the center of his chest that made him recoil. Then it was followed both another one to his helmet that made him turn to the side before he wised up and activated his invisibility detection vision. It came on just in time to see an ecto-charged fist coming at his face again, the blow being powerful enough to send him flying in the room he just walked out of.

Ember's eyes were wide. She thought the growl came from some creature Skulker might've had as a pet, but no. It came from _Phantom._ That was kind of unbelievable.

Skulker groaned slightly as he managed to raise his head in time to see Phantom coming after him. And he did not look happy. He smiled. He wasn't expecting Phantom to attack him, but this would make the hunt interesting.

His missile launchers appeared on his back and fired a volley of them in his direction. They hit dead on and Skulker smiled even wider.

"His anger only made him even more careless. How disappointing," Skulker thought as he stood to his feet and began to walk down the hallway. But he felt a tap on his shoulder. Before he could turn around, he felt a fist wrenching through his armor. His eyes widened as the entire suit began to freeze completely. But his actual form didn't freeze.

"You're a fool if you think missiles will stop me from coming after you," Danny growled as he tossed Skulker's suit into a wall. The suit shattered into pieces as if it were made out of building blocks. Then Skulker was picked up with two fingers, green eyes staring at him with... it was no longer anger. It was deeper than that. Hatred.

"You took them from me," he growled. The blob knew exactly what Phantom meant by that.

"Quite an unfortunate miscalculation. They were... unworthy prey." What Skulker didn't understand is that he knew how to say the exact things that just worsened his situation. Now was one of many examples as Danny threw him into a wall and pinned him there with an ecto blast.

"Unworthy prey?! They were far more than that to me. And it's something you'll never understand because a pathetic little thing like you will forever be alone. But let me..." Danny's snarl of a voice quieted for a moment before he closed his eyes and opened them to where they were a blood red. He didn't notice the change in his eyes, but he noticed the shift in power. As well as his green energy was now red as he held it in his hands.

"...enlighten you." Skulker's eyes widened when his vision was filled with the red beam. Phantom's blasts had clipped his real form before, but pain... pain like this was never like that. His scream bounced off every wall in the room, and the pain only intensified as it continued.

Ember eased her way into the room, and her sight landed on Phantom's _red_ beams that were blasting Skulker. Skulker's real form. She wasn't expecting this. She was expecting a regular fight where Phantom threw Skulker around a little, smashed his suit, and moved on. This... this is not what she was expecting not at all.

Then the beam stopped. Danny held up the now charred blob, who felt like the air itself was hurting his skin. The halfa then tilted his head at the figure.

"There isn't much you can do to a ghost. You are dead after all. But, I can leave you with something that you won't forget. Ember?" Danny called out, his eyes turning back to a normal hue of green. But they were as cold as ice.

"Um... what?" the rocker asked, walking into the room. Skulker couldn't even widen his eyes. It would hurt too much to manage it. But the situation still shocked him. He realized that even though they were no longer together and she really didn't like him, he didn't think she would team up with Phantom to do something like this. It was an atrocity on some many levels.

"You're good to go. Your guitar remains intact. I do need you to do one thing for me," Danny said as he made a clone of himself and the clone flew out of the room past her. "Tell everyone that you know I'm on an edge right now. There are moments when I don't want to hurt you and just get you out of my way. Then there are other days when I want to do the exact opposite. It all depends on the day I'm having. So I want them all to know that what happens to them when they attack the town depends on the day I'm having. I'm changing. For the better or worse depends on your point of view."

 _"Oh, I have to say that it's for the better,"_ the voice suddenly said, the tone sounding somewhat ominous.

"So what are you going to do here?" Ember asked, wondering why he was still standing here holding Skulker.

"Oh, I'm going to give him a lesson that'll... stick," Danny said idly. "Trust me. You don't want to stay on the island considering what I have planned."

"I'll take your word for it," Ember said, floating out of the room. Then Danny looked to Skulker and threw him on the floor before freezing him in place.

"And now... we wait," Danny said, sitting his chair.

He knew it was a smart choice to freeze the hunter's mouth along with most of him because he more than likely would've been annoying. So he bid his time by throwing an energy ball back and forth between his hands. It was green again. It seemed like when he got angry, his energy turned red. It looked a lot more powerful than the blasts before, but he could seemingly only channel it when he was angry. It may have had do something with the death of his friends. Like his DNA, maybe he could learn to use it whenever he wanted to.

Then Danny looked up and saw that his clone flew into the room. Then he smiled at the sight of the device in his clone's hand. He grabbed it and his clone disappeared. The memory of going in through his parent's portal, grabbing the ectoplasmic bomb they had been working on, and exiting back through the portal was inserted into his head. It was ridiculous how laughably easy it was to take it when his parents claimed to have one of the best fortified places against ghosts. What a lie. But still. At least one of his parents' inventions was going to fit his purposes. That is, if it worked. Danny wasn't hopeful.

"Alright, I've gotten what I needed," Danny said as he placed the bomb on the ground and armed it for two minutes. More than enough time to fly out. Then he grabbed Skulker and flew out.

Floating in front of the island, Skulker was unfrozen in Danny's hand, causing the ghost to spit out water. Then he looked at Danny with indignation in his eyes.

"Let me go whelp!" Skulker exclaimed, struggling in Danny's grip. The halfa laughed at how small the ghost's voice was now. It was a good thing he could make things with technology. No one would take him seriously otherwise.

"Oh, I will. In a few minutes. Hopefully," Danny said, saying the last word under his breath. He waited for a few moments before shaking his head. Trust one of his parents' inventions...

He didn't even get to finish the thought before a loud boom echoed throughout the Ghost Zone as the floating island in front of the two ghosts was obliterated. Even though he had to dodge debris, he was still smiling.

"NO! Whelp, what have you done?!" Skulker exclaimed. Danny let him go before blasting him in the air. The pain came back to the small ghost immediately. He barely had the energy to float.

"You deserve far worse than to lose your home for what you did. You're finding some place else to live," Danny said coldly.

"My home! My inventions! My hunting is-"

"All a product of me losing my friends!" Danny yelled. Then he blasted Skulker again, making the small ghost convulse with pain. "Believe me. There's more I wish I could do to you. There's a lot more than you deserve. But this will do for right now. It'll have to." The halfa floated off back towards his home while an extremely injured Skulker didn't know whether to be angry or mortified at this turn of events. All he knew was that the whelp had to pay for this. There was only the matter of how. Unfortunately, he had no allies anywhere. Except perhaps... one.


	9. Chapter 9 - Ways To Cope

A/N: Ended up changing the title. Wanted something simpler.

* * *

Danny arose in the morning surprisingly lighter. He cracked his neck before preparing to get himself ready for the day. At least he was early enough to actually eat breakfast before heading off to school.

"Good morning," Danny said as he grabbed a plate. Jack looked away from his food for a brief second, Maddie looked away from the stove, and Jazz took her eyes away from her book and looked at Danny. They were all surprised to hear him sounding so... it wasn't necessarily happiness, but he definitely seemedto be in better spirits than before. And the funeral was what, two days ago?

"Good morning sweetie," Maddie said in a somewhat subdued tone. "I hope you slept well."

"Depends on what you mean by well. I slept with no dreams. That's about as well as it gets," Danny said as he began to pile food on his plate.

"That's... good," Maddie said, unsure what to make of her son's statement.

 _"Beating your friends' killer to a pulp and destroying his lair certainly helps with the dreams,"_ that strange voice from yesterday said. Now he was more than convinced that it was not any part of his mind, but rather someone else talking to him. It couldn't have been Plasmius. He had no qualms just coming up to Danny and talking to him the other day. There was no point. Unless he somehow thought that he would be more prone to listen to the voice coming out of his head rather than listen to him. Wasn't far from the truth, to be honest.

 _"Or maybe you've finally lost your mind."_ This actually was a part of Danny's mind. He could distinguish the two after a while; which voice was which. Christ, now he definitely sounded batshit crazy. Then again, no more so than usual according to others.

"Maddie, have you seen the Fenton Ghost Bomber? I just put the finishing touches on it the other day, and I couldn't find it this morning," Jack suddenly said, jerking Danny out of his thoughts. He forgot how naturally loud his dad's voice was.

"No, I haven't. Did you look everywhere?" Maddie said. Danny just sat down and casually ate his breakfast. He couldn't necessarily tell his parents what he did with it, but knowing them, they'd love what it was put to use for. Making a murderer homeless. He still deserved worse than that.

 _"Now I can't tell if I'm just going mad or I just hate Skulker that much,"_ Danny thought.

 _"There's a gigantic difference between going mad and just getting more vengeful. You're more of the second than the first. But fighting ghosts is guaranteed to bring a little madness to the table,"_ the voice said.

 _"Are you some form of Multiple Personality Disorder? Because actually having a conversation in my head is weird. Even for me,"_ Danny thought, causing the voice to laugh.

 _"No, it's not normal. Certainly not. Normal was never in your description ever since you became a halfa,"_ the voice said, making Danny chuckle outwardly. Jack and Maddie didn't notice as they were conversing with each other, but Jazz, who was paying attention to her brother did. And she was thoroughly unsettled by the low, but throaty chuckle he let out.

"Danny?" Jazz suddenly asked, making him look up from his food. He blinked in slight confusion as he looked at her. "Are you alright?"

"Alright?" Danny asked. Then he realized that he may have laughed out loud. "Oh, yeah. I'm good. Just trying to think about the good times. Days when we didn't have to bury best friends and teenagers."

That sentence got both of his parents' attention, and they both looked at him with worried expressions on his face. Danny attempted to go back to his food, but then he noticed the stares before sighing.

"I know it's a bit... solemn. But it's fact. And me out of all people know there's no other option but to accept it. I'll just start going crazy if I don't. There's just the matter of finding ways to cope," Danny said, stabbing his food with a grim tone.

 _"Smothering the pain with rage is an effective one,"_ the voice in his head said. God, he had to give this dude a name.

 _"But very short term. Not to mention unhealthy,"_ Danny thought before focusing on his parents again.

"I know that we haven't necessarily been a very close family, but... Maddie said before putting a hand on her son's shoulder and looking him sincerely. "You need anything, you don't even have to ask."

"Your mom's right Danny. Even though none of us have lost anyone like this, we want to help you however we can," Jack said, making both Jazz and Maddie nod.

"We're here for you little brother," Jazz said. Danny couldn't stop the wide smile on his face if he tried. It almost looked silly from how wide it was.

"Thanks for that. It's a process, but I can make it," he said before standing to his feet cause he finished the last of his food. "Well, I think I oughta head out. I'm surprised I even managed to get up this early."

"Have a good day sweetie," Maddie said, smiling gently. He nodded with a smile of his own as he waved at them on his way out the door.

 _"If I have to witness something like that again, I think I may vomit."_ Ah, there he is. Danny physically rolled his eyes as he walked and lifted his bookbag up higher.

 _"Hush you. If you don't like family moments, you can vacate my mind whenever you want. You did it yesterday,"_ Danny reminded him. It? Whatever.

 _"I don't really leave. I just shut up and watch,"_ the voice said.

 _"You could've done that now Hyde,"_ Danny said.

 _"I... did you just refer to me as Hyde?"_ the voice asked.

 _"Yup,"_ Danny said casually.

 _"I think I deserve a cooler name than Hyde,"_ Hyde said almost haughtily.

 _"Well, your position in my mind fits exactly as that. I'm Jekyll, you're Hyde. I'm the merciful one, you're the brutal one,"_ Danny said, making Hyde snort.

 _"Isn't that the truth? Even considering what you did to Skulker the other day, compared to me, you're a goddamn boy scout,"_ he said.

 _"And that's horrifying to think about,"_ Danny said idly.

 _"For the people who got in my way. Luckily for them, I don't have a body anymore,"_ Hyde said.

 _"So you're trying to corrupt me. Seems reasonable,"_ Danny said. Somehow the idea wasn't as bad as it would've sounded before... things happened.

 _"Hey, I can't make you do anything you don't want to do. Know that. All I can do is talk to you. And gain control in a way, but that's only if you let me. Like yesterday with your powers,"_ Hyde said.

 _"Thanks for telling me that, by the way. That was really helpful,"_ Danny said.

 _"Consider it my goal. I know more about your abilities than you do. Your potential. You learn by doing when you need to actually practice,"_ Hyde told him.

 _"And how exactly would I find that time?"_ Danny asked.

 _"Find a way. If you practice like Plasmius did, you could be ten times more powerful than him when you hit your twenties. I doubt any ghost or human could take you down at that point,"_ Hyde told him.

 _"In my current state, I'm powerful enough to deal with who I want to. I don't see the point,"_ Danny said before a thought came to mind.

 _"Please. I wouldn't waste my time with you if you were as dumb as you're trying to sound. You can maintain four clones. You can learn to make four hundred. You can use a devestating Ghostly Wail. You can learn to maintain it without exhausting yourself. Along with cyrokinesis and energy blasts. And there is still more to learn. So much more,"_ Hyde said, oddly sounding a mix between someone wise and someone enthusiastic. _"You do want anyone else to die like your friends did, do you?"_

Danny stopped in his tracks at the sentence, his nails digging into his palms. His eyes were suddenly burning with anger.

 _"Ah. You may be powerful, but you are also hopelessly predictable,"_ Hyde said, sounding amused. _"Facts hurt Phantom. They do."_

"Shut up," Danny growled aloud.

 _"No. Nor can you make me. Only the powerful get to choose who lives and who dies. It's a fact of life. When the mugger overpowers the civilian, he chooses whether or not they die. The government choose all the time who lives and who dies. The murderers, the ghosts who invade_ your _town. It's all a product of their power and what they can do with it. Your only option? Become more powerful than them all. I promise you that you'll never feel weak like you did in that hospital_ ever again."

The last two words were spoken with heavy emphasis, and they dug into Danny's mind. Danny had the strangest feeling about the ability of him unable to control him. Because his words sounded... tempting. Alluring, in a way.

 _"Think about it,"_ Hyde said without waiting for Danny to respond.

 _"What exactly... does that involve?"_ he asked.

 _"Power is built on whatever little you have. Much like strengthing a muscle until it's stronger. Whether it's beating someone to death, blasting their body to shreds with ecto blasts, or obliterating them in any way you see fit, there is only potential. Potential for the potency and the power of that ability to grow. Much like the fight with Spectra,"_ Hyde said.

 _"I don't..."_ Danny was cut off by the memory filling his brain. He recalled punches, snapping bones, breaking trees, screams... It all became too much and he ended up leaning on a building as he clutched his head.

 _"It seems when I gain control, you black out for that time period. I'm all too glad when you let me take over, but it's going to get annoying if I have to keep reminding you of everything I did so you don't miss stuff. You should really take notes,"_ Hyde said idly.

 _"What? And fight like that?"_ Danny said in a slightly aghast tone.

 _"I don't see why not. Other than Skulker the other day, you fight like a moral person. It's disgusting. You don't fight weak, but you_ think _weak. You don't hurt. You subdue,"_ Hyde said.

 _"It's in a hero's description, supposedly,"_ Danny said.

 _"The anti-heros and villians are way more fun. They don't have to give a shit. I don't care if you fight for the good or bad. I just want you to teach whoever crosses you that they shouldn't otherwise they're in for a world of pain. You think your enemies are going to learn from a couple of cuts and bruises with the occasional burn mark? Considering ghosts have advanced healing, I sincerely doubt that,"_ Hyde explained, sounding condenscending and mocking. It was not a tone Danny liked at all.

 _"I am not Dan Phantom,"_ Danny insisted. There was brief silence before Hyde spoke again.

 _"Of course you are not Dan Phantom. He was a lot crueler, a lot more powerful, and devoid of any humanity. I suggest you adapt to the first two descriptions at least,"_ he said. _"With his power, he took over the world. And you can be greater than that. Can you imagine what you could do with power such as that if you learned? Good or bad?"_

 _"A symbol of fear, not a hero,"_ Danny said.

 _"Being a hero will only get you so far. They are so hopelessly simple minded, it's ridiculous. Using their abilities to capture instead of destroy the evil. Maybe they know for a fact they'd be out of a job if they just killed everyone. Makes you wonder if they're the evil ones,"_ Hyde said idly.

 _"That's twisted logic,"_ Danny told him.

 _"But it_ is _logic. It makes_ sense. _Do you disagree?"_ Hyde asked.

 _"I certainly want to, but I can't unfortunately,"_ Danny said.

 _"At least you're not trying to argue with the facts. That's the sign of thinking like someone smart. You'd be surprised how many 'smart' people try it,"_ Hyde said as they began to approach the school. _"Oh, how pleasant. This horrid place."_

 _"At least we can agree on something,"_ Danny said as he walked up the steps.

* * *

"Skulker, you may ask as many times as you want. My answer is still _no,"_ Vlad growled, his tone getting impatient.

"How fitting that the time I need your assistance the most, you deny me!" Skulker exclaimed, still in his blob form. It wasn't like he had any other way to get another suit. That's why he was trying to talk to Plasmius. But you could guess how it was going.

"Because I'd say the circumstances have changed considerably since you last asked me for help," Vlad said, standing up from his chair.

"What circumstances?" Skulker asked, causing Vlad to look at the hunter incrediously.

"Oh, I haven't a clue. Oh, right! Your actions caused the _murder_ of two teenagers," Vlad said, his voice as cold as ice.

"Manslaughter. It was not my intention to kill them," Skulker said in an unaffected tone.

"You willingly launched those missiles and they malfunctioned and killed both Sam Manson and Tucker Foley. _That,_ by all intents and purposes, is _murder._ No matter which way you look at it. And that is my reason for shutting you down. Well, denying you the ability to rebuild. It seems Phantom has shut you down himself, and in a very swift manner," Vlad said, mentally smiling at the thought of the badger learning the concept of payback. Of true _vengeance._

"So you will not help me? You do realize that I am the one who does jobs for you when you need me to? What will I do without gear?" Skulker shot at him.

"I can easily replace your services with a clone of myself. I just prefer to not even bother to waste the effort of distracting tasks. I do have a city to run and plans to maintain," Vlad told him, straightening his suit in as a sign of superiority. "I never saw your actions leading to any deaths, but trust me on this, if Phantom did not deal with you, _I w_ _ould have."_

"You seemed to have no issue of me hurting Phantom or any of his friends," Skulker said, making Vlad roll his eyes. Skulker always overestimated himself.

"Oh, please. If I believed you had the remotest chance of landing a burn mark on even Mr. Foley, I would've shut you down long ago," he said dismissively. Skulker's temper flared at that. But without his suit, it was far less intimidating. Then again, Skulker was never able to intimdiate Plasmius. No, that worked the other way around. Vladmir Plasmius was a man you did not want to cross. Only Phantom could do it and get away with it.

"My answer is still no Skulker. And it will always be no unless you can somehow reverse your disgustingly bad decision to kill those children," Vlad said, disgust entering his tone. "Now, leave or I will _make_ you leave."

Seeing no choice, Skulker's tiny form turned intangible and left the building. Vlad sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. Skulker served as more of a distraction for Phantom than anything. Vlad hoped one day that everything would be too much and he would come to him for help. Whether to denounce his idiot father and join him or just come to him for _something. Anything._ But no. That was a thing of the past. He didn't do right by not shutting down Skulker before, but he would do right now. He knew Daniel had enough weighing him down without some idiotic hunter with a superiority complex distracting him. The less of them he had while mourning, the better.

 _"Consider this an attempt to make amends Daniel,"_ Vlad thought before straightening the tie to his suit. Every fiber in his being was screaming that this was a bad idea, but he was going through with it anyway.

He was going Jack Fenton's house with the intent of _talking to him._ Vlad cursed the day he got attached to Daniel James Fenton.

* * *

 _"Not a bright bunch, are they?"_ Hyde said.

 _"I think being born with a talent for sports or with plenty of beauty causes intelligence defects,"_ Danny said. He ended up glancing at the A-List table, and Hyde certainly had no qualms about saying what he thought about them. Then again, in his case, saying and thinking were basically the same thing.

 _"This may surprise you, but in some cases, that's not always true,"_ Hyde said.

 _"Around here unfortunately, it is,"_ Danny said, taking a bite of food.

 _"Such a shame. The one in the pink shirt looks like a good time,"_ Hyde said.

 _"Paulina. She's one of the worst ones,"_ Danny told him.

 _"How much of a bitch is she?"_ Hyde asked.

 _"If you're not pretty, rich, popular, or good at sports, you aren't even worth being in her presence,"_ Danny summed up.

 _"Oh, so she breaks the scale for being a bitch,"_ Hyde said.

 _"That's one way to put it,"_ Danny said.

 _"I don't see any other way to put it. What about the buff one?"_ Hyde asked.

 _"Dash. Aka, a bullying jackass,"_ Danny said.

 _"I can assume you would know,"_ Hyde said.

 _"How'd you guess?"_ Danny asked.

 _"Easy to maintain cover as a hero if you appear weak to the rest of the world. It's smart, but I personally would just break their arms and move on with my life,"_ Hyde said casually.

 _"Have I mentioned that you have a knack for saying some of the most interesting things in a casual tone?"_ Danny said.

 _"I know. It's a gift,"_ Hyde said, sounding like he was grinning. It almost made Danny smile.

Danny's head suddenly shot up as he felt eyes on him. His eyes wandered to the A-List table, and then he noticed literally everyone was staring at him. Unconsciously, his eyes narrowed at them before going back to his food and eating.

"You see how he looked at us?" Star said.

"Definitely shows that he doesn't like us very much," Kwan said.

"You two maybe," Paulina said, pointing to both him and Dash.

"I don't know. The look was pretty general," Kwan said.

"Stlil, sad or not, he shouldn't be looking at us like that," Paulina said before nuding the jock next to her. "Dash, go over there."

"I'm not in the mood to mess with Fenton," he said, taking a bite of his food. Several members of the A-List looked at him with wide eyes. The days Dash Baxter didn't feel like messing with Danny Fenton were very few.

They saw Fenton dump his tray with an apple in his hand as he sat back down. He put his feet on the table as he ate the apple, a pondering look on his face. He tossed the apple in the air in his other hand as the look remained on his face.

"Think you can hit him from here?" Paulina asked, grabbing Star's apple and handing it to Kwan.

"What's the point of even throwing this?" he asked.

"I don't know. I just need to feel like things are normal. Everything's been off ever since Fenton's friends got killed," Paulina said, not denying how crazy things felt. The only ghost encounter that had happened wasn't even seen. There was a big hole in the wall, and it was suggested that some ghost just snuck in the school.

"Good point," Kwan said, eyeing Fenton where he was sitting and with almost no effort at all, tossed the apple in his direction.

Then, about as sudden as a bullet, Danny's hand shot up and caught the apple. Then, with a careful toss, it landed in the trash. Several pairs of eyes widened at the feat as Danny turned his head towards the A-List table...

...and smirked.

"Unbelievable. Since when does Fenton have reflexes like that?" Kwan asked, turning to everyone else at the table.

"Never. He sucks at dodgeball," Dash said, raising an eyebrow at the teen.

"So what? His friends suddenly dying made him get good reflexes?" Kwan questioned as he continued to stare at Fenton. The teen in question finished the apple he was initially eating before tossing it in the trash.

 _"Ah, at least some things never change, right?"_ Danny thought as he raised his bookbag more securely around his shoulder.

 _"Death, no death. Some people never change,"_ Hyde said.

 _"Weirdly enough, the feeling of normalcy felt kind of nice. Then again, what wasn't normal was that I actually caught it. I would've just let it hit me,"_ Danny said.

 _"I for one, am glad you did not let it hit you. I also vote that you should've thrown it back at the bonehead who threw it at you,"_ Hyde said. _"It's not like people would get suspicious over a little self-defense."_

 _"It'd definitely surprise a number of people,"_ Danny said.

 _"Let it. Surprise everyone by breaking the fingers of the football players. I doubt anyone would mess with you at that point. Hell, I'll even settle for a thorough beatdown,"_ Hyde said.

 _"You're willing to see anything violent just to sedate that side of you,"_ Danny thought with a roll of his eyes.

 _"I don't see why you_ don't. _Personally, violence is one the most relaxing experiences whether I'm doing it or watching it. Well, when I could do it. At least there were plenty of people dumb enough to get in my way,"_ Hyde said.

 _"So you were a killer?"_ Danny asked.

 _"Not necessarily. I could spare people. But more times than not, I found myself killing. Sometimes it was unavoidable. Sometimes it was just... fun. One of my worst enemies went to this school, if that surprises you at all,"_ Hyde said.

 _"Really? Well, I can assume that he was the one who put a stop to you and, as useful as you are, I'm glad you're dead and of no threat to anyone,"_ Danny said.

"Now _you're starting to think like me. I like that. Now if we can only get you to start acting on it,"_ Hyde said, sounding somewhat pleased.

 _"Good luck with that,"_ Danny said.

 _"I like a challenge. Well in any case,_ she _was not the cause of my downfall. Rather, it was an old friend of hers. He possessed a type of strength that I certainly wasn't expecting, and it lead to my downfall. I was left imprisoned for life,"_ Hyde said before snorting. _"Which was stupid. With so many people that I killed, I expected them to do away with me. Take what was rest of my soul and cast it to Hell or something. It was better than staring at a dark, blank surface for years."_

 _"I suppose you died of boredom,"_ Danny said, his tone cheeky.

 _"Quiet you. But that's actually quite accurate. It was_ very _boring. At least trapped in your head, I can see entertaining things. Hopefully I'll see you tearing apart your enemies like a mad dog,"_ Hyde said casually.

 _"Amazing. Out of all the disembodied voices to get stuck in my head, I get the most violent one out in the entire universe. Now I'm even more glad I gave you the name Hyde,"_ Danny thought.

 _"It_ is _quite fitting. Now..."_ Hyde was cut off by Danny's Ghost Sense going off and his eyes immediately narrowed. Hyde's voice immediately turned playful. _"Fun time!"_

 _"Fun. For you maybe..."_ Danny said as he stood up and walked out of the cafeteria. Looking around the hallway, Damny saw that there was no one to witness him transform.

 _"Before I even think about helping you with your powers, we got to get you something different for your ghost form. The jumpsuit gets old very quickly,"_ Hyde said dryly.

 _"Oh, stuff it,"_ Danny thought before quickly evading to the side as he was lowered into a crouch while looking at what flew past him. It was blue fire.

"Aragon," Danny said aloud for the first time in about a half hour. Then he turned and saw that his fire was still spreading. "That's not good."

"Let us discuss... current affairs," Aragon said before taking a swipe at Danny with gigantic claws. Danny leaped over the claws before floating in the air and firing a bright green blast at him, causing him to reel his head back in pain before snapping at Danny's flying form with his huge jaws. Danny took the opportunity to fire a stream of ice down his throat. Aragon made a choking sound as he shook his head erratically before closing his mouth and spewing flame all over the place.

"Crap. Let's hope this works," Danny said he closed his eyes and focused his ice powers. His green eyes were now blue and his hands had a trail of frosty air behind them. The fire around him froze as it hung on the walls around him. He turned towards the fire that was spreading down the hallways when he heard students scream. But he suddenly felt a strong force pin him to the ground, which was Aragon's foot.

 _"Freeze his foot,"_ Hyde suggested. Danny nodded as if he was actually around him before Aragon's foot froze immediately after he started focusing his powers more. But instead of trying to wiggle free since his foot lost all of its pressing force, he flew outward and shattered Aragon's leg several meters past the knee. The dragon hybrid roared in agony before a black missile with frost trailing behind him flew up at his face with green surrounding his entire form. That green was ecto energy, and it had all the force of a wrecking ball. Aragon felt his lower jaw snap.

Then he felt himself plop to the ground. But not as a dragon.

Looking up from his prone position weakly, Aragon looked up to see that Danny's amulet was in his hand. But ice quickly surrounded the artifact before it, with a sudden close of Danny's fist, shattered into pieces.

"My amulet!" Aragon exclaimed before groaning in pain. He was still devoid of a leg and his lower jaw was broken. His leg was the worst of the two. Then he felt him being snatched by the collar and thrown towards the source of his own fire. The flames licked at his skin, and he yelled, desperately trying to put the painful substance out.

 _"And here I thought you weren't going to cause any pain. You little liar,"_ Hyde said with a smirk in his voice.

 _"The fight took a more... violent turn than I thought,"_ Danny thought as he began to walk towards the fire and put it out. But now Aragon was starting to freeze up, so Danny dispelled his ice aura.

 _"And you even learned a new trick. Two actually. That ice aura and the energy around you while you're flying,"_ Hyde said.

 _"Frost Point and Ghost Bomber,"_ Danny said.

 _"Already have names for them. Cool. And as for him?"_ Hyde asked as Danny turned to Aragon, who was shivering in pain and... was that fear?

 _"He's had enough,"_ Danny said, drawing the thermos as he sucked Aragon in and capped the device.

 _"That's no fun. But then again, I didn't expect the beginning to take the turn that it did, so I'm fine," Hyde said casually before pausing. "Did you know that frozen severed limbs hurt far worse than inflamed ones? Fire cauterizes the wound. Makes it safer. But ice? It feels as if a thousand tiny knives are penetrating your leg, stabbing it over and over_ and over _again. I'm told it's agonzing. Plus he's got a broken jaw."_

 _"I don't take pleasure in people's pain like you do,"_ Danny snapped. Now the cafeteria was starting to empty and people started to cheer that Phantom had taken care of the ghost, but his focus was on Hyde.

 _"I don't expect you to be a sadist like me. I loved causing people pain. I won't even lie to you about that. I had a lack of humanity. There's hope for you. I expect you to see pain as something necessary. If you find it fun along the way, that just means you enjoy your job,"_ Hyde said with a grin in his voice. Before Danny could even think his response, a girl in a pink shirt came running up to him and the sudden speed caused him to dodge to the side and ready an ecto blast, but then saw who it was.

"Oh. Sorry about that. I'm on edge," Danny said calmly, disabling the ecto blast at Paulina's shocked look. The look was quickly replaced by something akin to awe.

"Was the ghost hard to beat, Ghost Boy?" Paulina said in a shrill tone.

 _"Dear Lord, that voice makes me want to kill myself. Figuratively speaking,"_ Hyde said.

 _"It either sounds like silk or nails scratching a chalk board. Unfortunately, we got option number two,"_ Danny thought before turning to Paulina. "Not incredibly difficult. I have to go now."

"Wait!" Her voice sounded less shrill and more level, which gave him pause. He sighed before turning around to face her.

"What?" he asked, rubbing two fingers across his forehead briefly as he looked at her.

"I'm having a party at my house. Can you come?" Paulina asked hopefully, causing Danny to resist the urge to roll his eyes, throw his head back, and groan. This again...

 _"In this teenaged mind of angst, you sound like you need a party. Drink, have sex, smoke. Do something,"_ Hyde suggested.

 _"Great. Not only are you advocate for murder, but also for teenager bad decisions,"_ Danny thought.

 _"In your life, you more than anyone needs to be doing this stuff. Trust me, all three can take the edge off. And you've got more edge anyone in the country. Probably the world,"_ Hyde said.

"How about this. You're in your junior year right?" Danny said with his arms crossed.

"That's right," Paulina said, looking excited. The rest of the students looked around. They had no idea where this was going. Did the Ghost Boy suddenly start taking an interest in Paulina?

"And you plan on having more parties in the future." This wasn't a question, but Paulina didn't seem to notice.

"That's right," she said, her tone growing more excited. A pondering look crossed Phantom's face before he looked back at her, his eyes focused. Paulina found his green eyes incredibly attractive; they looked like shiny emeralds and they looked like they could see down into a person's soul. Maybe they could. He was a ghost, after all.

"I'll tell you what. This party I won't go to. But I know somehow who should be able to go. Make him forget his problems for a day, and I'll go to the next one. Granted, if nothing's being terrorized by ghosts. _Or if I change my mind halfway through..."_ Danny thought the last one, but his expression and stance did not change.

"Ok!" Paulina said brightly. Any trade would be worth getting the Ghost Boy to one of her parties. Even if he wanted to invite a loser. "Who do you want me to bring?"

"Danny Fenton," Phantom said easily, causing multiple students to trade looks.

"Fenton?" Paulina asked, her smile slightly slipping. She noticed that he said that he needed to forget his problems. "What, is he upset about his friends?"

"Anyone with a heart would be upset at that. You give him the option, _it's an option,"_ Danny emphasized as he fixed her with a piercing look. "So if he doesn't want to come, don't shove it down his throat. I may uphold my end of the deal anyway. I find that you treated him like an actual human being, I'll come. You do anything different? Don't even bother asking me for anything in the future."

The last line was spoken so coldly that several students flinched. Phantom was obviously not kidding about his statement.

"I'll... I'll do that," Paulina said with a nod.

"Good. Then we have a deal. You see him, tell him when and where," Danny said before turning intangible and flying out of the roof. _"I hate you Hyde."_

 _"Hey, did I ask you to do something so elaborate? No,"_ Hyde said. _"Besides, few drinks, a girl to keep you warm during the night. You'll be as right as rain."_

 _"Oh, yes. Because I definitely want to be a meathead who drowns himself in bad decisions becuase everything else is going wrong,"_ Danny said.

 _"You have the option not to go. But I think it would help you mentally. Unless you're relying on ghost attacks to blow off steam, you're going to implode with everything else. I don't even have to go down the list,"_ Hyde said.

 _"I doubt that a party will change it. And it'll just lead to something I won't be able to get myself out of. Addiction to drinking or something,"_ Danny said.

 _"It's all up to you,"_ Hyde said as Danny reverted back to his human form while in the bathroom.

* * *

A/N: I'm doing some gone with the wind type of shit when it comes to this story. I just do whatever comes to mind. Then again, that's pretty much all my stories. But it's not turning out to bad. Even I don't know where I'm going with this, but it's going somewhere. Also, perhaps this is because I'm a bit of a sadist, but I love writing Hyde. Like the irony I was going for, he's Hyde to Jekyll(Danny)


	10. Chapter 10 - Party Time

A/N: Between job hunting and free time, I haven't had too many opportunities to update. Still, the show must go on. It took a long time to make this chapter as well when I was working on it. I had no idea exactly how I wanted to build the character introduced in this chapter.

* * *

 _"Don't you think you're a bit overdressed?"_ Hyde asked.

 _"And risk wearing something that'll give someone an excuse to say I look like a geek? No sir,"_ Danny retorted, straightening his collar. The dress shirt may have been a little much, but the jeans and black sneakers were perfectly average. If someone's drunk enough to vomit on him, someone may be walking out with a black eye. Male or female.

 _"True. Just what was the point of this? Finally trying to find a way to have some fun?"_ Hyde questioned.

 _"Why not, right?"_ Danny said, unaware that someone was behind him.

"You look good," Jazz complimented idly as she stood in the door. Danny turned, and smiled a little.

"Thanks," he said, looking down. "I have no idea why I agreed to this."

"I call temporary insanity from recent events," Jazz said with a grin before it faded. "You don't have to go to this."

"I know. I certainly gave myself that option. But hell, I feel like I should," Danny said, making Jazz blink in slight surprise at how the cussword flew from his lips. "You still driving me back here?"

"Uh huh. I'll be over there in a few hours," Jazz said before raising an eyebrow questioningly. "Unless you'd rather stay all night?"

"The less I'm exposed to the self proclaimed king and queen of Casper High, the better. The king and queen of shallowness is more accurate," Danny said with a roll of his eyes, making Jazz smile slightly.

"Have a good time little brother," she said. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"There's no promises for that, Miss Goody Good," Danny said with a smirk. She rolled her eyes as he transformed into his ghost form and flew off.

 _"How heartwarming,"_ Hyde said dryly. Danny rolled his eyes.

 _"You may not be one for emotions, but I am,"_ he said.

 _"Being dead on the inside makes you indifferent to most things,"_ Hyde said casually.

 _"So does actually being dead, I guess,"_ Danny said. He would've done a noncommittal shrug had he not been flying.

 _"You're starting to understand,"_ Hyde said, his voice sounding pleased.

 _"It's kind of obvious,"_ Danny said.

 _"Which is more than some people can say,"_ Hyde said as Danny flew in an alley across from the house before transforming back to his human form once he saw no one was around him. There was loud music playing from Paulina's house that he could hear even from here.

 _"Jesus, how do the neighbors here even cope with that kind of noise?"_ Danny questioned.

 _"Probably very, very good earplugs,"_ Hyde said.

Danny approached the door and balled up his fist before beating on the door somewhat loudly. Dash being the one to answer the door was not promising. But he only raised an eyebrow at the sight of him.

"You're actually here," Dash said, making Danny shrug.

"Figured why not. Have I at least arrived before the drinks got spiked? I really don't want to stumble home drunk off my ass. It'll be kind of hard to explain that," Danny said, making Dash raise both of his eyebrows at the way he said it.

"You seem considerably less loser-ish today. That's a first," Dash said, making Danny shake his head.

"Heh, thanks," Danny said with absolutely no humor in his tone. "Can I come in now?" Dash moved to the side and let him in before closing the door.

 _"He cursed, and he's not dressed like he has absolutely no sense of clothing. What, were his friends the reason he looked like an absolute geek?"_ Dash questioned in his head. It was weird to think of it that way, and kind of screwed up, but that was the only reason he could think of.

 _"So what are you going to do? Drink? Smoke? Chat up a girl?"_ Hyde asked.

 _"Christ. What are you? The ghost of bad teenage decisions?"_ Danny asked, trying to not to let his irritated look show as he grabbed a cup of punch.

 _"I'm the ghost saying that you need to loosen your scrawny ass up and have some fun,"_ Hyde said. _"Believe me, if you're stressed, a blowjob will..."_

 _"ENOUGH HYDE,"_ Danny said furiously as he downed the drink in his hand without spilling a drop. _"I'm so irritated with you, I wished that was spiked."_

 _"In this scene, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. But seriously, spiked punch is so cliche. Then again, I doubt you could handle the rough stuff without getting 'drunk off your ass' in two seconds flat,"_ Hyde said.

 _"You keep this up, I'm not going to be able to enjoy a damn thing,"_ Danny said before doubling back and grabbing another drink.

 _"Fine. I'll quiet myself. But at least smoke some weed,"_ Hyde said.

 _"Oh, for Pete's sake... Maybe. Will that satisfy you?"_ Danny asked.

 _"For now,"_ Hyde said before going silent.

 _"Goodness gracious. Maybe Hyde is a sign that I have no sanity,"_ Danny said, taking a more leveled sip from the drink in his hand.

The halfa decided rather than jumping into something, he'd rather take a look around as to what everyone was doing. There were a lot of people dancing. Not all of them looked drunk. Some of them seemed to actually know how to dance, unlike him. Dancing was definitely out. He was definitely not getting drunk. Sex? No. Smoking might've been the safest option.

 _"How does it even affect half ghosts anyway?"_ Danny thought. Ghosts couldn't get cancer from cigarettes, and he didn't even know what weed even guaranteed besides an intense hunger. Then he eyed the circle of people passing a blunt. Four guys, three girls. 'Maybe' wasn't a guarantee...

 _"Oh, forget it,"_ Danny thought before draining the rest of the drink and walking over there. "Room for one more?"

Contrary to what Danny thought, he wasn't met with weird looks that he was over here asking to smoke. He was met with smiles like he was one of them. It was extremely weird. How did he possibly fit in with a group of possible pothead strangers' than people from his own school?

"Sure dude. Trish, scoot," one guy said. The girl he spoke to moved over a few inches on her butt so that Danny could sit, giving Danny a wide smile.

"Note that I've never smoked a day in my life," Danny said, making all of them look at each other. If anything, it unnerved Danny that their grins got wider.

"Oh, we got a newbie here. Alright, then you get the first puff. Let's see how well you take it," another guy said, passing the blunt over to him. Danny gave it a slight apprehensive look before grabbing it. He looked at it for a few more seconds like it was poisoned, making everyone laugh.

"Trust me. It's not going to kill you. Quite the opposite, really," the girl named Trish said, gesturing for him to continue. Danny slowly brought it to his lips and sucked. Then he tried to blow it out like he saw people do, but it seemed he inhaled some of it in the process. That sent him into a coughing fit.

"Oh boy," Danny said, blinking rapidly.

"Close. Most people aren't naturals, but you got sorta kinda close. Everyone always accidentally inhales a little too much and ends up swallowing some of the smoke," the first guy said.

"Feels like that's what I did," Danny said before passing it to the guy next to him. He took a puff, avoided swallowing the smoke, and blew it out easily before passing it along.

"If you're in this for the long haul, you'll get it down," he told Danny.

"Trust me. If you got things holding you down, this is a great way to help with that," the second girl said.

"That's if I'm in this for the long haul," Danny said, making everyone chuckle.

"Oh, trust us. After you get the next few hits down, you will. I just recommend you stock up on extra food. You're going to clear out your fridge in no time," the third guy joked. "So what's your name?"

"Danny," he said simply.

"Danny. Well, I'm Jeff. That's Mark. That's Clark. That's Chris. As for the ladies, you got Stephanie, Trish, and Sapphire," Jeff said, pointing to each of them.

Jeff was a relatively dark black male, though it wasn't burned to a crisp level dark. He had nearly no hair on his head; almost as if he was shaved to get ready to join the military. He wore a hoodie and black jeans with Nikes of the same color. If he didn't smile so much, you'd almost think he was like... someone he knew of in a way. Into dark clothing and all that.

Chris, like Jeff was black, but he was definitely a few shades lighter. He looked about sixteen, though he was relatively tall for his age. His hair was smoothed down in waves with one earring in his left ear and a gold watch on his left wrist. By the looks of things, it looked like his family was fairly well off. If the latest pair of Jordans on his feet were any indicator.

Clark was a different story. He was around the same skin tone as Danny, if not a little paler. He looked at the same age as Chris, though he actually looked more like the size his age indicated. He wore a pair of faded, slightly baggy blue jeans with a black shirt and a pair of sneakers. Not as flashy as Chris' latest models, but they were in good shape. He had brown hair that hung just above his shoulders with the sides sticking out slightly like a thorn bush even though the rest of it was as smooth as anything.

Mark was Asian, and Danny wasn't even going to try to guess where from. He could be Korean for all he knew. He looked to be seventeen or eighteen, and his hair was styled with a high fade, and he wore a type of football jersey, muscles evident given the lack of sleeves. So he was definitely a jock. His eyes fell on Sapphire, who was the one wearing the letterman jacket to go with the jersey. Didn't have to second guess that those two were paired.

Speaking of whom, Sapphire was dressed just as casual as the guys. She had a slight tan, and was wearing Mark's letterman jacket and jeans that hugged her hips. A place Danny had quickly averted his eyes to to avoid staring. Complete with tennis shoes and long black hair that hung about an inch from her shoulders, she was a knockout. It reminded Danny of Dash and Paulina. Though he hoped for much better attitudes.

Stephanie was a blonde who was dressed similar to Sapphire only she had a blouse on instead of a letterman jacket. Her hair hung about half an inch above her shoulders, and she looked to be about sixteen or seventeen. Green eyes eyed Danny almost eagerly, which left him wonder what the hell that look meant.

Trish, who looked to be seventeen, seemed to be gifted with the power of red hair, though gifted with a little less sense of sense of modesty. The shirt she was wearing was a bit more low cut, which again, made him have to avert his eyes to avoid staring. Overall, trying to make friends while your eyes wandered to each of the girls was not the greatest timing in the world.

"Welcome to the Circle of Stoners," Chris said in a joking tone.

"Looked more like an oval when I walked over here," Danny said, making everyone laugh. Without his permission, he started to smile. Ok, maybe this actually was a good idea.

 _"Told you,"_ Hyde said out of nowhere. There was no way to respond to that without Danny looking like an idiot, so he just opted to ignore it.

"This one got jokes. Alright, I'll give you that one. Steph, I'm putting you on circle check next time. If Danny here mocks our circle shape again, or lack thereof, I'm holding you fully responsible," Jeff said with what was an attempt at a stern finger point.

"Kiss my ass Jeff," Stephanie said, passing the blunt to Danny.

"But I already do so much more to it that that..." Jeff said in an innocent tone, making Danny's eyes widen before swallowing smoke on accident. That sent him into another coughing fit.

"Dammit, Jeff!" Danny exclaimed, which sent the entire group into hysterics.

"You really wanna kill the guy on his first day?" Clark asked, still unable to stop himself from laughing.

"I certainly don't," Trish said with a bit of a suggestive smirk. Danny had absolutely no way to respond to that, so he looked away.

"Get used to the dirty jokes right now. I'm telling you, Jeff does not stop with them," Sapphire said as Clark grabbed the blunt from Danny.

"There's no shame in my game," Jeff said, brushing imaginary dust off his shoulder.

"Your game is weak. I still keep a few batteries around," Stephanie said, making Danny choke again. But this time it was on laughter along with the rest of the group.

"You all are going to have me in the grave before I finish high school," Danny said, shaking his head.

"Either of laughter or choking on the kush smoke. Either way is not a horrible way to go out," Mark said, taking the blunt form Clark.

"My lungs disagree with the second one," Danny said with a shake of his head.

"Your lungs will be fine," Sapphire said with a dismissive wave of the hand.

"Also before you get any ideas, two of these ladies are paired up with someone. A guess as to which one I'm paired up with," Jeff said with a grin.

"Neither. You make love to a bottle of Jergens," Danny said dryly, making everyone snort out a laugh. Mark, who was in the process of taking a puff, ended up choking on some smoke himself.

"Low blow, dude. Low blow," Jeff said. He was still grinning widely, and Danny couldn't stop his grin from getting wider. Why was this so _easy?_ It was strange.

"I'm starting to get used to this dynamic. But I guess the couples that smoke together, stay together," he said with a shrug.

"Believe it. Who needs dinner and a movie when you have a bag of grass?" Sapphire said.

"Amen to that," Mark said.

"Blunt's almost gone. Here. You take what's left," Stephanie said, passing it to Danny. When his mouth was about an inch from the blunt, his ghost sense went off. It took everything in him not to groan in exasperation. Quickly looking up, it wasn't hard to deduce who he was dealing with. That jacket... the slight glow of his skin... he knew who that was. And who was next to him. His eyes narrowed.

"Danny, you alright?" Jeff asked.

"I see someone I recognize. Give me a couple of minutes," Danny said, standing up. But he couldn't resist taking another drag. Christ, after this party, he was going to be addicted to weed. That was just great.

"Yeah, he's coming back. He's one of us now," Trish said with a grin. Danny rolled his eyes before forcing the blunt in her mouth and walking off. Why weren't there any potheads at Casper High? So much easier to get along with. At least these ones were.

* * *

"Tell me again, why am I here?" Ember asked, her tone low.

"Cause this is the best party that's going on right now. Now let's hope someone has already spiked the punch," Johnny said eagerly.

"You're not drinking too much. I refuse to fly you back to the Ghost Zone when you have no sense of the world and vomiting all over my shoulder in the process," Kitty said distastefully.

"I said I was sorry Kitten," Johnny said apologetically.

"Tell that to the jacket you ruined," Kitty reminded him.

"Back to this. You do realize I had to possess someone just so no one identifies me as the singer Ember?" Ember said, making sure to lower her voice while holding her arms out. The music was deafening, but it still was better to be careful.

"You'll be fine. Besides, if you want a night of fun, it won't be your body that's..."

"Kitty, no. Just no," Ember said, making Kitty shrug. "There are just some things you don't do in someone else's body."

"Your call. Anyway..." Kitty was cut off by her leg suddenly being grabbed and falling through the floor. Ember's eyes widened.

"If that's Phantom, I swear to God..." Ember said, getting out of the girl's body and quickly phasing through the ground before anyone saw her.

"What are you two even doing here?" Danny asked, his fists already ready to fire ecto blasts. Oh, come _on!_

"Don't do it babypop," Ember said, arming her guitar up for a blast. But Johnny was holding his hands out in surrender.

"Whoa, whoa! Dude, we're not here for trouble. We didn't even know you were going to be here. We're just here for the party," he said, making Danny raise an eyebrow.

"Let me get this straight. You're not here to cause trouble," Danny said, lowering his fists slightly.

"Right," Johnny said with a nod.

"You're just here for the party," Danny said.

"Right again," Johnny said.

"Since when?" Danny questioned.

"Well, we all enjoy our partying. We just kinda prefer messing around with the town more," Johnny said with a shrug.

"If one thing goes awry, I say _one_ thing, I'll be using your hands to make you part of a ventriloquist act," Danny said darkly, making all three ghosts cringe at the image. Nevertheless, he dispersed his fists of the green energy. "I am most certainly _not_ in the mood for a ghost fight. That's not what this night was supposed to be about."

"Wait, so... you're here for the party too?" Kitty asked.

"For once, yes. I was actually having a decent time before I knew you were here," Danny said, crossing his arms. It was then each of the ghosts took a look at him. They hadn't even noticed that he was wearing something different, and to be honest, more fitting than what he normally wore. Black was definitely his color.

"You actually don't look half bad," Kitty said. Danny blinked slightly at the compliment.

"Thank you. I can't believe I'm doing this, but as long as you cause no trouble, I guess you can stay," he said with a sigh before looking to Ember. "How has no one identified you yet? I mean you are... you." Ember knew it definitely wasn't the best idea to mention that she came here in someone else's body. Speaking of which, she had no idea where she would've gone to at this point.

"Been lucky so far," she said.

"For your sake, you better hope it stays that way," Danny said, heading towards the stairs of the basement and walking out. The three ghosts then looked at each other.

"Since when does the dipstick show up at parties?" Ember asked.

"Well, when it came to breakups, I used to do nothing but get drunk off my ass at parties," Kitty suggested.

"Yeah, but Phantom's not you. He's what we call 'the good guy.' So far, he's had the perfect life up until his friends," Johnny said.

"All it takes is one bad day," Kitty said. "He smelled like weed smoke."

"That's not a bad way to spend your first party," Johnny said, approval in his tone.

"Am I the only one concerned about these changes?" Ember questioned.

"Just stay out of his way, and we won't have to worry about it. I mean, he let us stay if we don't anything wrong," Johnny said.

"And that's the problem. Doing wrong things is pretty fun," Ember said.

"Well, you could work on your music. But with less of the mind control," Kitty suggested.

"That takes too long," Ember said.

"You really wanna try world domination with Phantom the way he is? I mean, he stood toe to toe with Pariah Dark, and he's still here. And he definitely didn't fight to brutalize like he did before," Kitty said.

"I heard barely," Ember retorted.

"Still, he gets credit for even being willing to fight him," Kitty said.

"Or stupid enough," Ember said with an eye roll.

"Let's drop the subject of Phantom. He let us enjoy the party, so how about we take advantage?" Johnny questioned, gesturing towards the stairs.

"Point. Let's go," Kitty said, taking Johnny's arm as they began to head upstairs. Ember raised her arms in exasperation before following them. The only reason she was even here was because Kitty dragged her along. It was not like she even had a date. Even then, Skulker wasn't necessarily a person you could take to an event like this an be inconspicuous. Even _if_ he overshadowed someone. He'd probably feel insecure without his suit anyway.

"The punch isn't spiked. Good. Which means you can have as much of it as you want for right now, and I don't have to worry about getting you home," Kitty said, grabbing a cup herself.

"That was one time. Are you ever going to let me live it down?" Johnny asked.

"Nope," Kitty said cheerfully, making Johnny groan.

"If I have to watch you two go back and forth like this, I'm going to lose my sanity. Why'd you even bring me along in the first place?" Ember grumbled.

"So you would actually have some fun. Go drink. Talk to some people that don't fangirl over you," Kitty said before looking past her and pointing. "Or you could do what Phantom's doing."

Ember turned, and she saw the boy scout himself take a drag from a blunt before blowing the smoke in the air. His eyes became half lidded for a second before he laughed and all the people around him raised their arms with grins. Ember had never seen Phantom so... carefree. Then again, he was high. He probably thought he could look into God's window if he flew into the air.

"He looks as high a kite," Ember said.

"And he looks like he's loving it," Johnny said with a grin. "Kinda of weird to see Phantom passing a blunt around with a bunch of stoners."

"I'm going to find a beer or something," Ember said, waving her arms dismissively before walking away.

"She's just sore cause she doesn't have a date," Kitty said once she was some distance away. Almost immediately, she was nailed in the back of the head with some jock's football. "Ow! Jesus, does she have elephant ears?"

"It's like she has a sixth sense when someone's talking crap about her," Johnny said with a shrug.

* * *

"So you go to Casper High?" Clark asked, passing the blunt to Steven.

"Yup. Shittiest school in all of Amity," Danny said.

"Heh. I doubt that. You've ever been to Carrigan High?" Chris asked.

"Nope. I remember our football team going against your school one time," Danny said.

"Well, _that_ is the shittiest school in Amity. Trust me. Shitty teachers followed by shitty food, students, and homework," Chris said.

"I went to Amity for a year. Was not impressed at all," Stephanie said, grabbing the blunt front Steven and taking a puff. "Then again, that was before all the ghost attacks."

"Ghost attacks?" Trish asked.

"It's kind of a thing with our school. The ghost attacks are no secret as fast as the entire town is concerned, but like a chunk of them occur at my school. So no way in any shape or form is your school worse than mine," Danny said.

"And you haven't been smoking weed before?" Stephanie questioned, making Danny shake his head. "You're better than me."

"Steph, stressful situations did not get you smoking unlike Danny here. Stop trying to act all innocent," Jeff said, making Stephanie roll her eyes.

"I doubt any of us are innocent. I mean, look at what we're doing right now. Passing a blunt around at midnight," Mark said, as Jeff passed the blunt down to Sapphire.

"Personally, I doubt you can find a better way to spend your weekend," Trish said before looking at Danny. "We should make this a common thing."

"She's right. I doubt you have your own stash of weed," Clark said with a grin.

"I have no idea exactly what I would do with it if I did," Danny said in an as-a-matter-fact tone.

"How about this. We'll come kidnap you from Casper every now and again. We'll introduce you to our crazy little band. That is, if you're willing to come along," Jeff said.

"I'm willing. It's a good thing to make new friends," Danny said with a smile. But he wouldn't admit that thinking about Sam and Tucker again immediately killed his high. So much for forgetting your problems for one night. A few hours, maybe.

"Please let me cut in. My friends are driving me crazy," a familiar voice said, making Danny stiffen slightly. He swore Ember was only coming over here to annoy him.

"Sure. Not often we get a teen rock sensation sitting at our little circle," Jeff said with a grin. "Someone scooch over." Ember raised an eyebrow at how tame his response was.

"I got it," Clark said, giving Danny a wink. The halfa had no idea why.

Ember sat, and she gave Danny a wry smirk. The halfa rolled his eyes. Everyone was looking between the two several times.

"You both know each other?" Trish asked.

"Somewhat," Danny said curtly as he eyed Ember.

"I'm here babypop. Deal with it," she said with a smirk before taking a sip of beer. Judging by the way his eyes flashed green briefly, she was getting under his skin. It was so easy, yet so fun.

"Babypop? Sounds adorable," Sapphire said with a smirk at the two.

"It's either that or dipstick," Ember said, draining the rest of the can before crushing it in her hand and throwing it behind her. "Because believe me, he does act like a dipstick."

"And you're the type of person who loves to stick their nose where it wasn't wanted," Danny said, giving her a narrow eyed gaze.

"To defend what little innocence I have, I didn't want to be here. Kitty dragged me here," Ember said rather plainly.

Danny shook his head before just snatching the blunt from Trish and taking a long drag. Trish looked down at her hand where the blunt was previously before looking at Danny, blinking twice really fast.

"You couldn't have waited a few seconds?" she asked dryly. Danny waited until he blew the smoke out to shrug noncommittally. Trish rolled her eyes as he took another puff before passing the blunt back to her. "Newbies, I swear."

"Call it insurance that I can stay sane while this conversation lasts," Danny said, blowing out another puff of smoke. Ember still found it really bizarre that she was watching Phantom smoke weed. It was like seeing Santa Claus shoot someone or Mother Theresa participating in a threesome.

"So... Danny..." Ember said casually. A little _too_ casually. It made Danny raise an eyebrow. Maybe she was trying a little too hard not to call him Phantom?

"Yes?" Danny asked.

"Do you drink now too?" Ember asked. It was actually an honest question. She wanted to know how far Phantom had fallen. And honestly, she wouldn't mind having a part.

"No. I'm not eager to experience a hangover. I think I'll stick with the punch until it gets spiked," Danny said evenly as Trish passed the blunt around to Ember, who just gave it to Danny. He raised an eyebrow at the gesture, but said nothing when he grabbed it from her and took another puff. With his eyes closed in a serene fashion, he blew the smoke in the air, the light gray smoke forming around him almost like a cloud. Danny gave off a few light coughs before passing it to Mark with a smile just as light.

"That's better than I could've thought," Danny said, still grinning.

"That's not even the good stuff," Clark said, making Danny's raise his eyebrows in surprise.

"You're kidding me," he said.

"Nope. All of us agreed that we're not taking the good stuff to a party where anyone could just snatch it. So we bring the basic stuff," Stephanie said, taking the blunt from Steven. "Speaking of basic, I think we oughta stop you there Danny."

"Why's that?" Danny asked with a frown.

"Cause it's possible to get _too_ high," Ember finished. Danny looked at her, and she looked liked she spoke from experience. Regular drugs and alcohol still affected ghosts. That's the only reason parties like this were remotely worth Johnny and Kitty's time.

"How is it possible to get _too_ high?" Danny asked.

"Because smoking, like drinking in a way, you have a type of tolerance. If you smoke past your tolerance, you'll really real fast that there's a difference between good high and the kind of high that will make unsure of the planet you're on. It'll almost be impossible for you to stand and you'll be so hungry you'll raid a supermarket after you're done with your kitchen," Jeff summed up.

"He's not wrong," everyone except Danny said, making him raise his hands in surrender. It was weird how all people who smoked weed were in sync. Even Ember.

"I'll take your word for it then," he said right as his phone beeped. It was Jazz.

 _"Everything alright over there, or do you want to come home early?"_ the message said.

 _"Everything good. Having a surprising amount of fun, really,"_ Danny typed back swiftly before pocketing his phone.

"Folks?" Chris asked.

"Yeah," Danny said. And he just left it at that.

"Alright, I'm officially starving," Clark said abruptly. "There any good food at this place?"

"I would hope so. Wouldn't be much of a party. Especially one to get high at," Chris said. "If your stomach is calling to you, please stand up."

Danny was about to stay seated, but his stomach knocked that idea out of the window. It wasn't hunger pains hungry, but it was very insistent about needing food. So he stood with everyone who wasn't Ember. She didn't really need food. It tasted good, but she didn't need it.

"Your first sensation of the munchies. Get ready to want to eat everything in sight," Trish said with a grin in his direction.

"It's not one of those painful hungers, but it's definitely one that gets you up and eating," Danny said.

"Yup, that's the munchie hunger right there. I shall guide you through this wonderful journey of food," Jeff said, putting an arm around Danny's shoulders and gesturing free arm out like he was telling an epic tale.

"I can think of something you can eat right now," Stephanie said with a grin.

Then, faster than anyone Danny's ever seen, Jeff picked Stephanie up and she was laughing while he had the most eager look on his face as he carried her away. Danny only blinked in slight surprise at how fast that all happened. Ember was rolling her eyes while the others shook their heads.

"I'm guessing that's common?" Danny asked.

"Almost every time we go to a party. They can't keep their hands off each other for very long after getting high together," Trish said.

"Modest is not in their vocabulary. If he says something or if she says something, they're gone for at least a half hour. It's enough to make them ignore munchie hunger, which says something," Mark said with an eye roll. "It's fine though. We'll journey to battle the hunger together."

"Can I talk to you really fast?" Trish asked Danny, making Ember raise an eyebrow. "Alone."

"Go for it," Sapphire said, grabbing Mark's hand and leading him away. Chris and Clark gave nods before walking away, Ember following them shortly after.

"I get the feeling that this isn't your type of scene," Trish said. It was a flat statement of fact.

"Every teenager has their problems, and I'm looking for ways to forget," Danny said.

"There are more ways to forget than just smoking. Highs can be killed," Trish said. Danny did not want to admit that his earlier one was killed a lot faster than it should've.

"Drinking works. Light drinking, if you want to avoid the hangovers. And as for the second way..." Trish trailed before grinning. "Well, that one I'm sure you can figure out on your own."

As Danny was walking, it took him a few seconds to get exactly what she meant by the second way. He had no plans to have sex at one of these types of parties.. Then again, he had no plans to ever smoke in his life, and look where he was now. Raiding chips to fight off the munchies.

"Let's just grab the whole damn bowl of dip and most of the chips. We're going to be coming back for them anyway," Chris said.

"Given the way my stomach feels, he's definitely not wrong," Danny said, already going for several bags of chips.

"Fenton." Paulina's voice suddenly drifted over to Danny, and he turned with several bags of chips in hand. She looked at him up and down with a critical eye before wrinkling her nose slightly. It irritated him more than he would care to admit. Then again, he was the one carrying several bags of chips like a hoarder.

"For the record, those were for all of us. He's not eating that by himself," Mark cut in, holding up the bowl of dip for emphasis.

"I could kind of figure that. I can smell the weed on him," Paulina said, wrinkling her nose slightly more.

 _"So the wrinkled nose wasn't a judging look. That surprises me,"_ Danny thought.

"I don't care how much food you take. Just make sure you get Phantom here, alright?" Paulina told him.

"It's between you and him. If he promised you, he's going to keep that promise," Danny said before thinking as an afterthought, _"As much as I would like to break it..."_ At least showing up at this party, he was just Danny. And he made friends just fine that way.

"Fine," Paulina said before walking away. But then she took a second look at Fenton. She had to admit that he actually looked good. Less of a nerd, and more... normal. Almost A-List territory. But she knew exactly who she was dealing with. At least he had the decency to at least look like he wasn't a loser.

"It's time to murder this food," Chris said, carrying two bags of chips in each hand with one bag in his mouth. It was amazing how he was able to speak clearly, yet the bag didn't drop from his mouth.

"Back to our circle," Danny said with a grin as the others followed. Ember looked at the group, and she was slightly surprised by how well Phantom seemed to fit with them. Like casually eating giant bags of chips and dip was normal.

Joining the rest of the group after grabbing another drink, Ember just saw them all inhaling chips in a very vacuum cleaner like manner for the next fifteen minutes. Her eyebrows were raised in disbelief the entire time. Then again, she couldn't really judge. She's gotten high several times, and the result was her raiding so many houses for food. It was definitely the pettiest use of her powers, but at the time, she didn't care.

"If you're going to eat that much, you could at least try a beer," Ember said, drinking out of her own beer. "Even you won't get a hangover after a few sips."

"She's right. Nothing wrong with a few beers," Mark said, popping a chip in his mouth after dipping it.

"Somebody say something about a few beers?" Johnny said, walking up to the group with a grin on his face. Danny sighed before shaking his head. At least Ember was tolerable. He wasn't so sure about Johnny. Kitty seemed nice. When she wasn't around Johnny and/or banishing people.

"We're trying to get him to try drinking. It's not as good as weed, but it's got its own little perks. Helps to forget a day if needed," Trish said.

Kitty looked at Danny, who was giving nothing away in his expression. She was somewhat amazed that he wasn't even going all out. If anyone needed to forget a day, it was him. She doubted she'd have same restraints, but she wasn't Phantom. No one was like Phantom, honestly.

"I honestly don't see the point of getting into another bad habit after getting into one already," Danny said before popping another chip into my mouth. "Even though I will gladly smoke weed now."

"We have converted thou holy subject to our devilish ways," Sapphire said in a joking manner.

"Oh, I wouldn't say I'm completely innocent..." Danny trailed. Ember may have imagined this, but she could've sworn his eyes cleanly landed on her and went over to Johnny and Kitty as well. It was a subtle sign that what he did to them weeks prior of this party certainly wasn't innocent in the slightest.

"Oh, do tell," Trish said.

"It's my little secret," Danny said with a small smirk.

"It's better not to know," Kitty suddenly said, digging into Danny's chip bag. He gave the ghostly biker a minor look of irritation, who only gave him a sweet smile in return. He went to dig in his bag, but a can of beer was put in front of his face.

"Are you hard of hearing?" Danny questioned.

"One sip will not kill you," Ember said in an exasperated tone. Danny sighed.

"Hand it here," he said. Ember smiled before handing him the can. Her smile made him raise an eyebrow and question whether or not the can was poisoned, but he brought it up to his lips and took a sip. The taste made him look at the can strangely. He was expecting something disgusting. Not... this.

"Straw-Ber-Rita. That's surprisingly good," Danny said, looking at the can.

"That's the weak stuff. Definitely not the drink you want if you want to get drunk off your ass," Ember said.

"Which is what I'm looking to avoid," Danny said before reluctantly handing the drink back to Ember. He didn't not want to admit that the drink was delicious. Not to meant he felt a type of strange warmth and burn his throat that was definitely the alcohol. "But to be honest, that drink was surprisingly good."

"Told you. And it's got a little... kick to it that you can't get with just soda," Ember said.

"I noticed that. A strange warmth," Danny said.

"A lot more-" Ember's attention was grabbed by the music suddenly stopping and there was a yell about the police showing up. Sure enough, there were red and blue sirens flashing behind the curtains. "Oh, shit."

"Play it cool. We should be able to get out through a window in the back," Clark said before turning and seeing that literally EVERYONE had the same idea and was bumping into each other in the process. "Well, so much for that idea."

"Side window. Just get out and run. Luckily we parked a few blocks awa-" Chris cut himself off. "Aw, shit. Jeff and Stephanie are probably still going at it and can't even hear us. Perfect timing, don't you think?"

"Just text him fast or something. We gotta go," Johnny said. Under normal circumstances, they could just phase out, but for some reason, they became stuck with the task of trying to look like regular people to Phantom's new friends. Since when was this their responsibility?

"They have their own car. If they can get their clothes on and slip out fast enough, they'll be fine to get away. We've talked this over before," Mark said before moving some curtains so he could climb out of a window. Luckily, they all stayed on the first floor. This was a big mansion, and it was real easy to end up stuck on the second floor. At that point, you had to be really devoted to getting away from the cops.

"Hey!" a policeman yelled in their direction once Danny climbed out of the window, who was the last one to climb out.

"Run. Now," Clark said, immediately darting forward to get towards an alley.

"We need to split up. We're easier to spot if we just clump together like this," Kitty said.

"You gonna be ok?" Chris asked.

"We'll be fine. Just go," Ember insisted.

"I'll get you at Casper one day. Just make sure to get away," Mark said before giving a quick salute and bolting down the street at a very jock like speed with the rest of his friends. Johnny, Kitty, Ember, and Danny all shared a look before getting into the darkness of an alley before turning invisible. The policeman who saw them come down this alley was extremely confused when he saw no one.

"What the hell? Could've sworn..." he trialed before shining his light down the alley to check every dark corner. Danny stood completely still, but was exasperated on the inside. All this for a bunch of partying teenagers?

Eventually, he left. Then the four of them took to the skies. It was really bizarre flying with three ghosts that he used to fight on a daily basis. Well, flying _with_ them instead of flying to shoot them out of the air with ecto blasts.

"I have no idea why we didn't just fly away. I mean, it's not like we care if anyone knows we're ghosts," Ember said.

"Wouldn't want to ruin the innocence of Phantom's new friends," Kitty said, a smirk laced in her voice.

"Bite me," Danny said with a roll of his eyes. "As much as I don't want to say it, I have to thank you for that. I really didn't need the ghost drama tonight. Why can't you all just do stuff like this instead of attacking the town?"

"Cause it's not as fun. Plus the whole idea of world domination is pretty cool in its own right," Ember said nonchalantly.

"If you already make good music, then what's the point of mind control?" Danny questioned.

"Danny Phantom admitting he likes my music? I detect a clone," Ember said, her tone full of mirth.

"As much as it kills me to admit," Danny said flatly. Ember couldn't suppress a laugh.

"Well, you're not too bad Phantom when you're at a party," Johnny said.

"And you're not that bad when you're not attacking my town and causing problems for me and my friends," Danny said, a bit of venom making its way into his tone. It took Johnny completely off guard.

"Whoa man. Calm down," Johnny said, easing away from Phantom.

"Sorry. High's gone. Attitude's coming back," Danny said before stopping several yards away from Fenton works. "You might not wanna get any closer. Ghost shield automatically springs up."

"Thanks for the tidbit. Maybe we can show you what a ghost party is like. It might result in you starting a fight and getting kicked out, but... ghost parties are pretty fun," Kitty suggested. Danny at each of the ghosts floating in front of him before sighing.

"I'll think about it. We'll see where this... situation between us goes," Danny said before turning back to normal and easing himself back down to the ground.

"Today's been a weird day," Ember said, shaking her head.

"Seriously. We go to a party, Phantom's already there smoking pot, and he lets us stay. Doesn't get any nuttier than that," Johnny said before looking at Kitty. "You meant what you said about taking him with us to a party?"

"Eh, why the heck not. I mean, he definitely looks good enough for a party..." Kitty trailed, making Johnny narrow his gaze slightly. Ember pursued her lips. It was better to not comment on this situation.

"Kitten..." Johnny trailed, even though there was definitely some intent behind his tone.

"Oh, come on. If you can look, why can't I?" Kitty said, raising her hands in surrender. "The jumpsuit looks kinda stupid, but in that dress shirt..."

"Kitty! Come back Kitty!" Ember said, snapping her fingers.

"Come on. You can't blame me. In those dress shirt and jeans, he kinda had something going on. Don't judge me," Kitty said, her cheeks coloring slightly.

"Can we _not_ talk about this?" Johnny said, his tone impatient.

"Sorry Johnny," Kitty said, looking slightly sheepish. Ember rolled her eyes as the three ghosts took to the skies.

* * *

 _"Fun time, wasn't it?"_ Hyde asked.

 _"First party, and already crashed by the cops. Unbelievable,"_ Danny said before using his key to open the door. He was greeted of the sight of Vlad sitting properly on the couch while his dad was talking away in an eager fashion. The strange thing was that Vlad... actually seemed to be listening. His mom was sitting in the chair on the side, and Vlad's eyes didn't even dart to her. But his attention turned to him once he opened the door.

"Hello Daniel," Vlad said with a smile. Not one of those strange, "I still want you to be my son" smiles. This smile made Vlad look more... human. More welcome, to be honest. "Vlad" and "welcome" were two words he used to never associate with each other.

"Hey Vlad," Danny said in a subdued tone.

"You have a good time Danny? Vladdie here just came by here to talk," Jack said, gesturing to the man in question.

"Yeah, I can see that. And yeah. It was a relatively quiet party. But I think I'm ready to turn in. Have fun talking about... whatever you're talking about," Danny said, blinking in a perplexed fashion before walking into the hallway. He ran directly into Jazz in the process.

"You didn't freak out over Vlad being up to something? What's going on?" Jazz asked, grabbing his shoulders and holding him still.

"It's because I don't think he's up to something. At least not this time," Danny said.

"What makes you so sure?" Jazz asked.

"Call it a feeling. And if you're wondering why I'm here early, cops showed up. Apparently they knew what was going on," Danny said.

"Yeah, and by the smell of things, you participated in some of it," Jazz said, sniffing his clothes. "Smoking pot? Really Danny?" Danny smiled. It was kind of funny to have her scold him for weed like he just stole a cookie before dinner or something.

"Don't knock it till you try it. But in any case, I'm going to have me a shower. Have a nice night," Danny said, heading straight for his room.

* * *

A/N: That took so much longer than it should've. It really did. But I got it done. So we've officially got Danny involved with a bunch of potheads and ghosts he could without a doubt at one point, could call his enemies. Where am I going with it? Even I don't know. But let's roll with it people. Hope you enjoyed the chapter tho.


	11. Chapter 11 - A New Day

A/N: Yes, I realize I've been MIA for ages. I really should upload more, but I get lazy sometimes with this story. Forgive me for that.

* * *

"My dad's going to kill me for the missing fudge," Danny said.

 _"Not if he doesn't know it was you. But hey. When you have munchies, nothing else has priority except ending them,"_ Hyde said with a grin. Let's just say that after Danny woke up, the fridge ended up having a more significant lack of food. The evidence of the fudge being gone was the empty pan. At least his hunger was satisfied. It was why he put the pan back in the kitchen and left almost immediately.

"That seemed to have been the case, given the fact that I did it anyway," Danny said.

 _"How about you go and visit your new friends? They all have your number. Besides, that Trish girl might interested in showing you a good time,"_ Hyde said. He had the most uneasy feeling that Hyde was winking when he said that, regardless of the fact that he didn't technically have eyes.

"You are disgusting, you know that?" Danny asked.

 _"No. I'm perverted. There's a difference,"_ Hyde said, his grin showing through his tone.

"You need a life," Danny said with a roll of his eyes.

 _"I did. Once before. At least this is almost as fun,"_ Hyde said before chuckling. _"Huh. Maybe today will be a good day."_

"Not for me if you continue to irritate me. Man, am I glad it's still the weekend," Danny said.

"Danny! What's good, bro?!" a voice exclaimed, making him turn his head. Jeff had his head hanging out of the window of his car, and he was waving at Danny as he drove along the side of the road.

 _"Yup. Say hello to your stoner friends,"_ Hyde said with a grin before he fell silent. Danny restrained himself from physically rolling his eyes and instead stopped and waved at Jeff. He met the car on the side of the curb, and a closer look let him know that Chris, Stephanie, and Trish were the car with him; the latter of the bunch gave the halfa a wink. He was almost unsuccessful at nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Control yourself for two seconds kids," Jeff said in a joking tone before looking at Danny fully. "You doing anything?"

"Not at the moment. Still the weekend," Danny said. "I needed to get out of the house cause..."

"Lemme guess. Your munchies struck you immediately," Jeff said with a knowing grin.

"No one in my house touches my dad's fudge on account of him going crazy over it, and I did it to satiate some munchies. One day of smoking, and I'm already devolving into suicidal tendencies," Danny said while shaking his head, making all passengers in the car laugh.

"Well, you're welcome to hang with us. After all, I got..." Jeff grinned while looking around him before showing him a bag of weed. Though Danny noticed he kept it well hidden in case anyone was looking. "Interested?"

"I'm not trying to become hooked on the stuff," Danny said with a pointed look.

"Too late. Alright, you don't have to smoke. It's your loss. But you at least have to hang with us," Jeff said.

"Trust me. The only one around here who might bite you is Trish, and it'll be a good kind of bite," Stephanie said with a smirk, making Danny go red while Trish laughed as she hit her friend on the arm.

"Where are the others?" Danny asked, doing his best to dispel the red from his face.

"Sapphire's out with our boy Mark, and Clark's out to try and work his magic on some poor, unsuspecting woman. Bless him," Chris said with a mock sniff. Danny gave the people in the car a second once over.

"I should say no to save my virtue," he said idly. Nevertheless, he opened the car door and got in anyway.

"But regardless of common sense, you're coming with us anyway. Great decision Fenton," Jeff said, raising a thumbs up. "And if you're wondering how we know your last name, we saw you coming out of the giant house with the Fentonworks sign up top. Not hard to figure out at that point."

"So much for anonymity," Danny said dryly as they began to drive off.

"So what is his royal highness in the mood for?" Jeff asked with a grin."I wouldn't mind a burger, personally, but..."

"Honestly, do we really have any other decent place other than Nasty Burger?" Danny questioned.

"None that I've bothered to check out. Nasty Burger it is," Jeff said as he stopped a light.

The rest of the car drive was just filled with idle chatter. As Danny soon discovered, Jeff had quite a talent for talking a mile a minute. Though he also had the tendency to tell decent jokes while doing so. At least it was always light around this group, and that was something he would always be glad for. If it ever wasn't, well... everyone had bad days.

"So your parents are ghost hunters?" Trish questioned.

"Not very good ones, honestly. But, at least my dad isn't. I'm pretty sure most of the time my mom has to watch him just so she doesn't end up hurting anyone besides the ghost. Like himself," Danny said dryly making her chuckle.

"Sounds like you have great parents," Trish said with a smirk.

"Oh, the coolest," Stephanie said with a smirk.

"I hate you all," Danny said with all the enthusiasm of a sloth.

"Mmm-hmm. Keep saying that and one day we'll believe you," Jeff said with a grin as he pulled up to Nasty Burger.

And it was here Danny decided to repeat "I hate you all" the entire time that it took them to get into the fast food joint. It was Hyde's suggestion, and Danny actually decided to go with it. It drove everyone crazy.

"Alright! We believe you! Or at least I do!" Jeff exclaimed, making Danny laugh until he was barely on his feet. Unknown to everyone except Danny, Hyde was in a similar state except that he didn't have feet. Weird bonding moment with his mental companion. Or whatever you wanted to call this situation.

"Oh, I'm thirsty like you wouldn't believe right now, but it was worth it. I could feel the blood vessels in your brains about to pop," he said.

"I would've likely would've popped your head like a pimple before that happened," Stephanie said, her tone slightly irritated.

"You could most certainly try," Danny said, his tone full of teasing. Then he spun to the side to dodge her swipe at him.

"Christ, you're fast," Stephanie said when she saw he moved next to Jeff with just one dodge.

"I'm decent at dodgeball," Danny said with a shrug as they made it to the counter.

"And a master of irritation," Trish added.

"Funny. My sister says the same thing. I still take it as a compliment," Danny said with a grin.

"Enough of that. We're at the desk. I'm going to order for you if you don't stop, and I _will_ be cheap with it," Chris said, since he was the one with the deepest wallet in here. Here Danny made the gesturing of zipping his lip, but at about the same time, his ghost sense went off. Regardless, Chris smirked at the gesture.

"Thought so," he said.

"Mind if we cut in?" a voice said, making Danny stiffen just off reflex. He looked around to just behind where Trish and Stephanie were standing, and he noticed that Johnny 13 was standing along with Kitty. But they were dressed different. It seems they had both decided on a much more subtle approach, because Kitty seemed to have worn something that made her skin less ghostly looking. Johnny's natural skin didn't really look that unlike the skin of a regular person, so he was fine. It seemed they were making efforts to actually not blow their cover as ghosts. Which really confused Danny.

"I certainly don't hope you expect me to pay for you two as well. My parents give me a lot of money, but that doesn't mean I want to spend it all. Hell, I barely want to buy for Danny over here," Chris said, jerking his thumb at the halfa.

"I feel the love. I really do," Danny said flatly, making everyone grin.

"Considering we were very close to killing you a few minutes ago, I'm amazed," Stephanie said dryly.

"Oh, I'd say everyone gets that feeling every now and then," Johnny said with a grin in his direction. Danny aimed a smile at him, but it wan't an easy going smile. It was that dark smile he was starting to see more and more. And his ribs suddenly hurt.

"Yeah, you hear him say the same thing over and over again to irritate you and see if you wouldn't be at his throat with a knife," Stephanie said with some irritation.

"You said to keep saying it..." Danny said with an innocent look, but eyes full of mischief.

"Good God, you are infuriating," Stephanie said.

"Funny. Ember says the same thing quite often," Kitty said idly.

"That's because it's fun to prod the people that make it so easy to mess with their heads," Danny said. "Both you and Ember just make it to easy. Make it difficult. That's what makes the difference."

"It's not exactly a switch I can flip," Stephanie said, giving him a deadpanned look. "Jeff, help me out here."

"I'll have the... hmm?" Jeff's head turned once he realized his name got called. "Oh, um... what she said." Stephanie rolled her eyes along with Kitty and Trish while Danny, Chris, and Johnny chuckled.

"Believe me. _That_ I know well. Almost makes me wish I had chosen Danny here," Kitty said with her a purr in her voice, rather ironically. That made Danny choke on his spit and sent him into a coughing fit. Johnny glared at Kitty. The stoners looked at Danny in amusement.

"You used to date his girlfriend? You must've left some impression if it didn't last," Stephanie said with a devilish grin. Danny knew she was taking the piss out of him for annoying her so badly. He couldn't blame her.

"One date, and if you recall, I was used as bait to get Johnny upset," Danny said, who was glaring daggers at Kitty. But this didn't seem like his "I'm going maim you for this" glare. This was, "I'm very irritated and going to make death threats towards you" kind of glare. Which was the kind of glare that didn't offer broken bones and bruises to nurse.

"Yes, that was true... Doesn't you weren't a fun time. Still, time must go on," Kitty said, making Danny growl. He remembered feeling happy at the idea that _Paulina_ had asked him on a date. And then it turned about to be Kitty. He would've made her for a ghost immediately if he had the common sense he had now.

"So you just used him to make Johnny jealous?" Trish questioned.

"Hey, a girl can only take a wandering eye so much," Kitty said.

"The joys of being freely single," Chris said with a grin.

"Joy, since the one girl I considered dating died not too long ago." The atmosphere suddenly went from cheerful and teasing to incredibly morbid. "And the next you consider pulling a stunt like that, I'll unscrew your head off from the shoulders. Emotions are _not_ to be played with."

And that's when the stoners saw something in Danny's eyes that suddenly worried them. His rather cheerful disposition was gone, and there was something in his eyes that was particularly... deadly. There was no other word for it. It was a sharp, intimidating look that held a great amount of intensity. And focusing on that look, they managed to miss the small shudder Kitty gave at his look. She was very much aware his emotions changed on the dime nowadays.

"It was a long time ago. It was a mistake," Kitty said carefully. Almost on demand, the look in his eyes disappeared and he looked fairly calm again.

"Just don't do it again. How about we order?" Danny said to the others.

"Uh... yeah. We'll do that," Jeff said as he turned to the others. They shrugged as they looked back at Danny, who suddenly didn't look like he was about to commit a second degree homicide in the middle of this place.

* * *

"Danny?" Trish questioned, making Danny sigh. He knew his sudden bout of anger wouldn't go unnoticed.

"About..."

"I know. I'm sorry. I kind of just... lost it for a second there. Happens more than I care to admit, honestly," he said, idly fiddling with one of his fries.

"Why's that? You normally seem... calm," Jeff said.

"Two of my friends died not that long ago. Ghost attacks," Danny said solemnly. Suddenly his appetite wasn't there anymore.

"Oh man dude. I'm..."

"Don't even even say it. It's not your fault. Though I have to say it uh... makes me rather moody at times. I'm trying to think about it less and less," Danny said, forcing himself to take a bite of his burger.

"We noticed. And as for you and... her?" Trish asked, jerking a thumb at Kitty.

"The memory irritates me more than anything now. Today I'm just a bit sore," Danny said, popping a fry into his mouth.

"Believe me, it's not one of my proudest moments," Kitty said honestly. Danny seemed to notice that she actually meant it before nodding. Then again, the statement was open to very specific perceptions.

"Still... that's not easy man," Stephanie said.

"No. But it does get easier. With time," Danny said.

"Alright, enough with the depression. Let's eat, and then we can head out," Chris said.

"Fair point," Danny said.

"Hey Pha... Fenton," Johnny quickly corrected himself, and Danny turned in his direction to address him. "Remember grand ol' Penny?"

"Penny..." Danny gave the name some thought and his mind wandered to the ghosts. Penny... Spectra. "Yeah. She's a soul sucker. What of the old hag?"

"Hag?" Jeff questioned.

"If you saw her, you'd know," Kitty said. "Without something to help with her looks, she looks like a wrinkly sandbag." That got a fairly good laugh out of everyone, especially Danny and Johnny." Neither of them were fans of Spectra. She didn't really have friends for a good reason. She had an unhealthy feeding of the misery of people she was remotely friendly with. Not a great way to make friends. In fact, the only thing really linking her to any kind of ghost was pretty much everyone's disdain for Phantom. Except for Bertrand. He was just unfortunate enough to be saddled with her.

"Are you sure you aren't talking about my chemistry teacher?" Chris questioned with a grin.

"Whatever she looks like, I doubt could look even worse than Spectra does," Danny said.

"Paint us a picture," Trish said, and Danny was too happy to oblige.

"Unless she has enough makeup to paint an elephant, wrinkly skin, sunken eyes, hair that looks like gray spaghetti, the works," Danny said casually, making them grin.

"Now I'm more than certain you're talking about my chemistry teacher," Chris said with a wider grin, making his companions laugh again.

"Come on. Even old Ida doesn't sound that bad," Stephanie said.

"I don't know about that..." Jeff and Chris trailed, making Stephanie turn to Trish for support.

"They kinda got a point. She did not age well," she said with a shrug.

"Thanks for the backup guys. It means a lot," Stephanie said flatly. Jeff laughed before putting an arm around her in an assured fashion.

"Just go with us on this one Steph," he said. She didn't respond, but looked to Danny instead.

"I don't suppose you have a picture of her?" she asked.

"Why would I have that? You want my pocket to melt?" Danny questioned, making the others snicker.

"Good point. It'd actually be kind of weird if you did," Stephanie said.

"Yeah, no kidding," he said as he finished the last of his burger. "I'm ready when you all are."

"Finished," Chris said.

"We all good? Alright. Let's go, Stone Boo," Jeff said, making Stephanie take his arm off her.

"You call me that again, I'm breaking up with you," she said flatly, making everyone laugh like a hyena. Jeff included.

* * *

"NOOOOOO!" Jazz jumped so hard, she lost the grip on the book she was holding and it fell flat on her face. That sounded like dad. As she had been helping Danny helping ghosts on too many occasions, she started rushing downstairs with a ghost blaster in hand. She skidded into the kitchen and barely managed to stop herself before she hit the wall as she was waiting to see which ghost had somehow managed to get into the house.

"What happened?! Ghost?" Jazz quickly questioned urgently. Only to calm down once her eyes assessed the situation. There was no ghost. Only Jack kneeling on the ground with a pan in his hands. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that her mom had jumped to the same conclusion and came running into the kitchen with a blaster that made hers look like a peashooter. It was even more amazing she was able to run that fast carrying something so heavy.

"Ghost?!" Maddie questioned before like Jazz, she stopped to assess the situation in front of her. "Jack? What's wrong?"

"My fudge!" Jack said, sounding thunderstruck. "It's gone!" Jazz quickly went from worried to irritated. She thought a ghost had somehow snuck into the place. It was just her dad crying over his missing fudge. Then again, that in itself was strange. No one touched his fudge. Everyone learned real quick that their father had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the stuff. Then her mind went back to Danny coming home smelling like pot.

 _"Ugh. What a time to get a brother who gets into smoking pot,"_ Jazz thought before focusing on the situation at hand. "Are you sure you just didn't eat it again dad?"

"It was only made a few days ago. I'm more than sure," Jack said before his eyes zeroed in on his daughter. "Did you eat it?"

"Not the biggest fan of fudge, remember?" she reminded him.

"Unheard of, but ok," Jack said, making Jazz shake her head. "Maddie?"

"Don't look at me Jack. I'm in the same boat as Jazzy, honestly," Maddie said before noticing they were missing one person. "Where's Danny?"

"Ah ha! We have our culprit!" Jack said, overdramatically pointing his finger in the air. Both mother and daughter mirrored each others' expression of disbelief. Then again, they shouldn't have been very surprised.

"It's fudge. Not a murder case," Jazz said rather dispassionately. "We'll just ask him when he gets home."

"The penalty will be one fresh new pan of fudge," Jack said, not seeming to hear them as he walked off.

"How did you end up marrying someone so obsessed with fudge?" Jazz questioned.

"To be honest, I have no idea how it got so out of hand. But it's part of who he is. Besides, I kind of fibbed about the part about not like fudge. It's why I tend to make more than one batch," Maddie said in a type of conspirator level of tone. "Do you think it may have been Danny?"

"Either he all of sudden inherited dad's craving for fudge regardless of the consequences, or we have a fudge bandit on the loose," Jazz suggested.

"Both of those options don't sound very appealing. You know how your father gets about his fudge," Maddie said.

"Believe me. I know well," Jazz said while shaking her head. "I legitimately thought a ghost somehow found its way in here."

"So did I," Maddie said, casually putting the behemoth of a blaster on her shoulder. Then she spotted the one Jazz was holding. "You get that out of her our lab?"

"Doesn't hurt to have some protection against ghosts in this town," Jazz said, making Maddie smile.

"Smart girl. I just wish your brother would do something similar. Especially after what happened to his friends," Maddie said with a sad sigh.

"Oh, I think you'd be surprised," Jazz said vaguely.

"At least you all are safe. In any case, I better make a pan of fudge so your father will calm down. Some for myself as well, while I'm at it," Maddie said, moving the pull the ingredients out of the cabinet.

Jazz shook her head. This town may have had a ghost problem as bad as motels have a roach problem, but they still didn't quite have anything on her nutjob of a family.

* * *

"Bleh," Ember said rather plainly as she played a few chords on her guitar. She was bored out of her mind. You could only play so many songs before you started to get bored. It's not like she had an audience to play for. That made all the difference.

 _"Where the hell is Kitty?"_ Ember thought as she put her guitar to the side. Almost as if her thoughts were brought into reality, Kitty suddenly walked into the door with Johnny behind her. "Good grief. Where the hell have you two been?"

"Hello to you too," Kitty said flatly.

"Do you have any idea how bored I've been?" Ember questioned.

"There was seriously nothing for you to do?" Kitty questioned.

"Let's see. I can't start a show cause the dipstick will take it as trying to enslave the world again, and he may or may not be right. Taking over the world is out. You already know who's responsible for that. I'm minus a boyfriend, even if he was an utter dumbass. And apparently, nothing exciting is going on. No attacks, no parties, no anything. So yes. I was out of things to do other than play my guitar, and even that will only last me so long without an audience," Ember explained, sounding fairly miffed.

"Well, next time we'll take you with us if you're that bored," Kitty said.

"And you were..." Ember trailed.

"With Phantom and his friends," Kitty said, making Ember raise an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" she questioned.

"Well, we were passing by and just decided to join him," Kitty said.

"He's not so bad if your plans weren't related to world domination," Johnny said.

"That's just the issue. Shouldn't we be trying to get rid of Phantom?" Ember said.

"You forget. That's always been more of your guys' thing. After that whole overshadowing event, I can't hate him too much," Kitty said. "Well, if I ignore what happened a few days ago. That hurt."

"I'll say," Johnny said.

"Still can't get any worse than what he did to Skulker. That... was something else," Ember said, recalling the day. Phantom had never looked so much like a wild dog on a rampage.

"Speaking of him, I haven't seen him around recently," Kitty said.

"That I don't mind. Just don't leave me here to die of boredom again," Ember said.

"I'll remember that for next time. Just try to keep your eyes of Phantom," Kitty said with a smirk.

"You want me to hit you?" Ember questioned, making Kitty laugh. "At the very least if you suggest something that offensive, I'll kick you out."

"Still, are you bored anymore?" she questioned.

"Thankfully, no. You have bad taste in jokes though," Ember said.

"Ah, you just don't have a sense of humor," Kitty said.

"The image would make me barf. It'd be like a stripper going after the Pope," Johnny said, making Ember smack him on the back of the head. "Ow! What'd I say?"

Ember smacked him again while Kitty rolled her eyes. She saddled with the pinnacle of intelligence right here.

* * *

A/N: Hopefully I won't take almost another year to update. lol. My bad. Just slacked a little on this.


	12. Chapter 12 - Winter Meetings

Winter had come quickly. Gratefully, it guaranteed that he wouldn't get a visit from Undergrowth. Even ghost plants couldn't stand these conditions. Vortex was a bit of a wild card, but then again, it wouldn't really matter once the Christmas truce came around. And it was likely he was going to the party they threw.

Granted, the whole thing with Ghostwriter had helped his mood concerning Christmas somewhat. But as his parents were going to argue about Santa like they did every year, he wanted no part of that. Another part of it was that... he never though he'd say this, but he was hanging with Kitty and Johnny in a way that was actually... what was the word he was looking for? _Friendly._

It was strange how they seemed a bit more... normal when they weren't causing havoc. Maybe any teenage ghost would be the same way if world domination wasn't on the mind. There were probably other teenage ghosts he could use as examples.

Kitty was strangely responsible and high maintenance at times, while Johnny was more laid back and chill about pretty much everything. It was unnerving how they seemed like... surrogates for the friends he lost. And that's not what he was looking for, and thankfully, them hanging out with Ember sort of broke that kind of connection. It was still kind of nice.

 _"Lost in your thoughts?"_ Hyde suddenly interjected. And then he was reminded of the strange voice that was stuck in his head for whatever reason.

"Ready for the vacation," Danny responded.

 _"I'm sure. Miss them?"_ Hyde questioned, and his voice sounded strangely soft.

"A lot. I don't have to brood on it most days, at least," Danny said.

 _"Ah yes. Your various... distractions. Between your stoner friends and the ghosts you can't make heads or tails of,"_ Hyde responded.

"It's mostly Ember I can't read. I honestly can't tell if she still wants to kill me while Johnny and Kitty seem over it," Danny said.

 _"Because you've brutalized them into oblivion like you never have before,"_ Hyde said.

"There's that. But..." Suddenly, Danny caught a quick movement on his right and he moved a hand out to react on demand. He had a firm grip on the person who was about to fall. He came face to face with Star, who looked like she didn't know how to react to him helping her.

"Watch out," Danny said simply as he helped her straighten up. He mentally raised an eyebrow at the sight of her not being joined at the hip with Paulina.

"Thanks Fenton," she said hesitantly.

"You're welcome. Just be careful," Danny said simply before starting to walk past her.

"Are you ok?" Danny suddenly paused as he turned to face the blond.

"Why do you ask?" he questioned cautiously.

"You don't exactly look... miserable anymore," Star said, and he could definitely see her point. He just didn't know why she was bothering to point it out.

"I miss them more than anything. But life moves on," Danny said with a shrug.

"I guess," Star said before turning around without a word and walking off.

 _"That was strange,"_ Hyde said as Danny watched her walk off.

"Extremely. Still, where's..."

"Fenton!" Jeff suddenly exclaimed.

"Never mind," he said to Hyde before quickly wheeling around towards the person in question and speaking out loud. "Sup Jeff!"

"Hop in! It's winter! We've got places to go!" he exclaimed.

"Hold your horses, you knucklehead! I'm coming!" Danny exclaimed, dashing forward and smoothly hopping into the back seat. All passengers included Stephanie, Clark, and Trish. "You are scarily prompt, you know that?"

"We get out less than an hour before you do, and it's just a matter of not being distracted," Jeff reminded him.

"Which he normally always is," Stephanie said with a pointed look.

"Can't hear you!" Jeff said before turning to face Danny. "Happy to be out?"

"Yes. For sure," Danny said, stretching his arms.

"We're about to go meet up with the others. Just thought we'd pick you up," Jeff said.

"Well, it's nice of you to think about me," Danny said as he let an arm out of the window. "Now let's get this show on the road."

"Fenton!" Paulina suddenly yelled, and Danny groaned.

"Friend of yours?" Trish asked with a grin.

"Nowhere near that shallow," Danny said before looking at the approaching Paulina. "What is it?"

"Having a party on Saturday. Tell Phantom to be there," she told him, making him roll his eyes.

"Ok. Now, Jeff! Hit it!" Danny said, his attention immediately going back to his fellow passengers.

"Don't have to tell me!" Jeff exclaimed, speeding off. "So what was that? You owe her a favor?"

"Unfortunately. Thankfully after this, we're even. Now, I hope you picked me up to do what I think you did..." Danny trailed, making everyone laugh.

"You do realize I'm going to have to start charging you for such eagerness," Jeff said with a grin, pulling out a bag of weed.

 _"Charging._ Way to ruin the fun," Danny said, crossing his arms.

"He's kidding Fenton. We all have the cash to supply us for life. Well, at least Chris does," Clark said with a shrug.

"More specifically, Chris' family. And they don't know that's where part of his allowance goes towards," Trish quipped.

"So as long as no one says anything and Chris keeps a stash of body spray on him at all times, we'll be fine," Danny said.

"Basically," Jeff said as he finished rolling the first joint. Then he passed it to Danny. "You first amigo. Here's to your first holiday with a group full of stoners."

"Here, here," Clark said, raising an invisible glass. Danny bit back a grin as he accepted the first joint.

* * *

"You know, I feel as if I could knock on God's windowsill right now," Danny said, his eyes glazed over.

"Don't. Believe me, you cannot get that high," Clark told him, his eyes similar to Danny's.

"Believe me. We've tried. It just lead to us staring at the fridge for three hours," Jeff said.

"Here's hoping," Danny said, shutting his eyes briefly before staring up at the sky again. The halfa was in a state of artificial bliss at the moment. He was still in Jeff's car, and they were parked out at a more private area. Luckily, it was hard for weed smoke to glue to you while out in the open air.

"How about we play 'Have You Ever?' We're all stoned, so the chances of dishonest answers are slim to none," Stephanie suggested.

"Shoot. Sounds like it could be fun," Trish said. Even though Danny didn't notice, her eyes glanced over him with an expression of mischief.

"Danny, you first," Stephanie said.

"Ok, um... Have you ever... been part of a ghost attack?" Danny questioned. Danny and Jeff were the only ones to raise their hands.

"You have?" Clark asked, looking over to him. "You never told us."

"It was a minor thing, really. Some short, stout looking ghost told me to 'fear his powers of cardboard,' or some shit like that," Jeff said, shaking his head.

"Box Ghost," Danny said with a yawn.

"Wow. Even his name is lame," Jeff said, making everyone grin.

"And I suppose you've been part of them about everyday?" Stephanie questioned.

"Correct," Danny said.

"Give us one example. One that didn't involve you getting away. Or do you always manage to?" Jeff asked.

"There was one time where I got hit with a ghost's love spell and it made me fall for one of my best friends," Danny said with a grimace. "Not an experience I'd care to repeat. I made a fool of myself."

"If that ever happened, Steph would have my huevos. Ghost or not," Jeff said, making Stephanie roll her eyes.

"Don't listen to him. If anything, I'd want to kill the ghost responsible a second time," she said.

"At the time, so did I," Danny said with a shrug.

"Anyway, Steph?" Jeff asked.

"Have any of you ever snuck out of your house to do something forbidden?" Stephanie asked. Danny considered not raising his hand, but mindlessly, his hand seemed to go up like everyone else's.

"Ooh..." Trish said teasingly. "Just what have you done Mister Mysterious?"

"I'm just going to say it involved a lot of late night fighting," Danny said, only half telling the truth.

"Underground fights? You don't look the type," Clark said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, hey, hey. Don't let appearances fool you. That's probably how he prefers it. Lowers their guard," Jeff said, holding out a hand before looking to Danny. "Right?"

"Works every time," Danny said with a nod.

"See?" Jeff said with a smile. "We'll have to brawl sometime."

"I suggest you do it where your girlfriend won't see you get knocked flat on your back," Danny said with a small smirk, making the others laugh. But Jeff's lingering grin was one more challenging.

"Oh, it is _on_ Fenton," he said before shaking his head and looking to Clark. "You next."

"Have you ever broken a bone?" he asked. Hands up were Jeff, Danny, and Clark himself.

"The others already know this, but I broke my leg in a ski accident. It was not how I wanted to spend my Spring Break," Jeff said sourly.

"For me, it was a practice accident in football. You?" Clark said, pointing to Danny.

"Fighting incident. Had to tell my parents it happened in a ghost attack," Danny said. If he was telling the truth, neither of these excuses were lies. They just happened to be connected. Luckily, he could heal broken bones in no time at all.

"Alright, Trish. Floor's yours," Jeff said.

"Have you ever had sex?" Trish said, and her tone was so blunt, a strange noise came out of the back of Danny's throat from the surprise. Clark looked to the side with his hand covering his face, and Jeff raised an eyebrow at Trish along with Stephanie.

"Way to have no shame Trish," Jeff said sarcastically as he raised his hand.

"You're welcome," she said brightly at she raised hers. Stephanie was the only other to raise their hand. Clark and Danny kept theirs down.

"Well, at least we can feel awkward together," Danny said with a plain tone.

"Nothing to feel awkward about. Just a question," Trish said innocently.

"Yeah, and I'm a thousand foot beanstalk," Jeff said sarcastically. "Danny, back to you."

"Gladly. Have any of you ever stolen anything?" Danny asked.

"Oh, boy. I've got a story there," Jeff said as he raised his hand along with everyone else.

* * *

The halfa now flew over the city, observing the place with all the attentiveness he had. He had to restrain himself from smoking too much weed before he left. He had been gone basically all day, and he wasn't sure his parents saw him at all today minus when he left for school. And it's likely he wouldn't be seeing them very much on Christmas if this one ended up like the last twenty times.

 _"You're so lost in thought,"_ Hyde commented.

"You would know," Danny told him.

 _"Of course I would. It's a quip. Even then, why are you patrolling shortly before Christmas?"_ Hyde asked.

"I can't single out the idea of Vortex or anyone causing trouble shortly before the truce," Danny said.

 _"You know... if he goes causing trouble, I can tell you how to harness his energy without needing moods,"_ Hyde said, and he knew Hyde would be grinning a very vampire like grin if he had a head.

"No Hyde," Danny said flatly.

 _"Oh, come on! He's caused trouble for you plenty of times! What's leaving him a weak, pathetic husk for a few months?"_ Hyde asked.

"Given the fact that the Christmas truce may be my chance to make some attacks stop without needed to turn them inside out? I'd rather not leave Vortex with an impression," Danny told him.

 _"You pansies and your talk of peace. Fine. But if that doesn't work within the next decade or so, we're trying it my way,"_ Hyde told him.

"A decade's a long way off Hyde," Danny told him.

 _"I've got nothing but time. I'm inside your head, for Pete's sake!"_ Hyde exclaimed.

"True. Alright, fine. If Vortex is still possibly attacking the town a decade later, we'll try it your way. Shorter, if there's the chance I get impatient," Danny admitted grudgingly.

 _"Ah, I'll make a textbook sadist out of you yet,"_ Hyde said in a gleeful tone.

"Shut it, you. Do you have an off button?" Danny asked.

 _"Yes, it's right next to the garbage disposal and patented blender,"_ Hyde said in a tone even enough to be sarcastic.

"Smart ass," Danny said, unable to resist a smirk of amusement.

 _"Yes, I am smart. Smarter than you? You be the judge,"_ Hyde said.

"I am," Danny said simply.

 _"If you were smart, you'd say it's me. But you make yourself look dumber by encouraging something that's obviously not true,"_ Hyde told him.

"You're a disembodied voice in my head," Danny said in a flat tone. "I'm not. Ergo, I'm smart enough to not get myself into that situation. Ergo, I'm smarter."

 _"If you really were smarter, you would've drained all of your enemies and turned them into useless piles of shit every time they tried to oppose you. Maybe you could make this cesspit of a town actually peaceful,"_ Hyde told him.

"You see, you use destruction as a primary method. Not me. You see, I like to try this thing called reasoning. And when that doesn't work, I kick butt. It's a cycle," Danny told him.

 _"It hasn't really been working, now has it?"_ Hyde retorted. _"You know, that's probably why it's a cycle."_

"And annihilating everything in my path is not much better," Danny said, making Hyde snort.

 _"To you maybe. To me, it's a long term solution to make sure you never have to deal with pests like the Box Ghost again,"_ he said, making Danny look thoughtful.

"Now, _that's_ tempting..." he trailed, making Hyde roar out of a laugh.

 _"You have your priorities straight, don't you?"_ he said with a chuckle in his tone.

"I'm a teenager. What did you expect?" Danny said with a grin before his ghost sense off. That quickly wiped the smile off his face as he looked around to see who was around him, but strangely enough, all he saw was a backpedaling Ember. Well, backfloating was more precise. She was lying in a relaxed position in the air with her guitar in hand.

"I thought we've been over this," Danny said in an exasperated tone.

"We have. I'm just bored," Ember said in a tone that matched her statement.

"Where are your friends?" Danny asked.

"Doing things I have no interest in watching," Ember said, making Danny grimace.

"Not an image I needed," he said, raising a hand.

"You asked, dipstick. Entertain me," Ember said, raising a casual hand.

"I'm not a show dog! Entertain yourself," Danny told her.

"If I could, I wouldn't be here," Ember said in an obvious tone.

"Ugh. I cannot believe I'm saying this, but... go do a show or something," Danny said with a grimace.

"Ok, for one, screw you. My music is actually good, you jackass. Secondly, are you for real?" Ember asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Go ahead. But less brainwash. Maybe you'll be minus quite a few fans without it," Danny said with a shrug.

"Funny dipstick. Real funny," Ember said with an eye roll.

'You gonna go or not?" Danny asked in an exasperated tone.

"Oh, sure. Let me just set up a stage, get the word out, and all the preparations in two and a half seconds," Ember said sarcastically.

"I get the point," Danny said, crossing his arms. "You get what I'm trying to say."

"What's got you in a good mood?" Ember asked.

"Something about flying high just does that," Danny said with a shrug.

"We're not that high up," Ember said with a frown.

"No, I mean weed high, No Hit Wonder," Danny quipped.

"Really?" Ember said before her eyes narrowed at his statement. The halfa only grinned. "You see? This is why we try and kill you."

"And never managed it," Danny said flatly.

"Cause you're too stubborn," Ember said.

"What does being stubborn have to do with stomping a mud hole in all of you?" Danny questioned.

"Because you never gave the thought, 'This is annoying and I'm not going to do it anymore' a try and instead continued to be a pain in the neck," Ember said.

"Yes, because I would so willingly give up the entire world being enslaved or killed," Danny said sarcastically.

"The world would not have been that bad under my control," Ember said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh, please. It would've been like Walker having control of the world in reverse. What would've been your first regime rule? Mandatory parties held in your honor?" Danny questioned sarcastically.

"Of course not," Ember said with an eye roll. "It'd be getting rid of all of the adults. Then mandatory parties."

"Oh, God. You're such a teenager," Danny said with a laugh.

"No duh dipstick. I'm a ghost of one. What did you expect?" Ember said with a raised eyebrow.

"The tiniest bit of growth. The smallest bit," Danny said. "I would've thought dozens of beatings would've at least done that."

"You can't tell me life wouldn't be a lot easier if we didn't have parents, teachers, and dumbass adults in general?" Ember said. Danny was unable to answer for quite a while, making Ember smirk in victory. "Exactly."

"Bleh. You win that one McLain," Danny admitted, waving a dismissive arm.

"Of course I do," Ember said with a smirk.

"At least it's almost Christmas. That guarantees a day off. From school. From ghost attacks," Danny said, crossing a leg over the other with his hands behind his head in relaxation.

"Do you plan on being at the Christmas party?" Ember asked.

"Considering my parents argue every year about the same irrelevant thing every year, yes. It's more than likely you will. Probably ahead of schedule," Danny told her.

"What do they argue about that makes you want to leave the house?" Ember questioned with a raised brow.

"Like I'm going to tell you," Danny said with a snort.

"Real nice Phantom," Ember said with an eye roll.

"Who said I was ever nice?" Danny said with a smirk, making Ember lash out at his foot to make him spin in circles. He quickly steadied himself before fixing her with an irritated look. "Don't make me come over there."

"Are you really going to chase me over this?" Ember asked.

"Yes. Because I happen to just be that petty right now," Danny said with a grin.

"Well... don't think you're going to catch me easy," Ember said before flying off.

 _"She does realize that she's going to get caught, right?"_ Hyde quipped.

"She probably does, but not like she'll ever admit it," Danny responded before his bottom half turned into a ghostly tail. Then he began to give chase.

"Dammit, why are you so fast?" Ember questioned when she saw he was almost directly behind her.

"Practice. And you're just slow," Danny said with a smirk.

"Oh, that's it," Ember said, her hair flaring up slightly more before her speed suddenly increased.

"That's right. Give me a challenge," Danny urged, making her speed off faster.

 _"Do you think she'll even make you have to push yourself?"_ Hyde asked.

"Eh. We'll see. Haven't had a race that didn't involve someone being chased in... well, never," Danny said before speeding up after her.

 _"Slow, eh?"_ Ember thought, glancing back slightly to see him casually catching up to her. _"We'll see who's slow."_

The ghost rocker hit a quick nose dive that Danny was easily able to follow before turning intangible through a building. Danny followed after her, and from what he could hear from the few seconds they passed through, their presence scared a few people. But he was still easily keeping pace with Ember, and he was wondering if he should just catch her now.

"Who's slow now?" Ember said, giving him his answer. In an instant, he sped up and caught to her, grabbing her arms and holding them at her sides.

"Still you," Danny teased next to her ear before releasing her. Ember turned to face him, her face giving off some irritation.

"Damn you," she said simply as Danny turned his tail back into feet.

"Don't be offended. I've gotten pretty fast. The tail just helps with building momentum," Danny told her.

"Meaning you could've ended the race sooner," Ember said flatly.

"Yup," Danny said.

"I should kill you," Ember said.

"One, how's that been going for you so far?" And two, are you bored anymore?" Danny questioned.

No, she actually wasn't. Phantom was still somewhat infuriating, but at least that was somewhat entertaining.

"No. I'm actually not," Ember said.

"Well there you go," Danny said, placing his hands behind his head as he relaxed in midair.

"Now about that show..." Ember trailed.

"I meant it. Go. But if I get the smallest trace of brainwash, I will use your head for a kickball," Danny told her casually.

"I'm quaking," Ember said sarcastically even though she knew he was not bluffing.

"Just know that I did give you fair warning," Danny said, creating a small ice crystal and smoothly moving it over his fingers.

"How'd you even get those?" Ember asked. Danny looked towards her, and saw she was now laid out on her guitar. She wasn't facing him, but looking towards the night sky like he was.

"What? My ice powers?" Danny asked.

"No. Your impeccable taste in fashion," Ember said sarcastically, making him fire a low powered ghost ray at her knee. "Ow!"

"Don't talk about my jumpsuit," Danny told her.

"Then wear something else," Ember said, nailing him in the head with a blast just as harmless. It felt like someone just thumped him.

 _"I'm with her on this. The jumpsuit sucks. Find something new,"_ Hyde said.

"Great. Two people who are against my choice of attire," Danny said in exasperation.

"Two?" Ember questioned.

"Someone else I know," Danny said vaguely.

"Then whoever it is, they're right. In any case, ice powers. You just showed up with them one day," Ember told him.

"From what Frostbite told me, my body started generating cold energy one day, and until I learned to control it, it acted like a cold," Danny told her.

"So when you sneezed, you froze stuff," Ember said bluntly.

"Not just that. I was like a walking AC. Stuff I walked by froze. It didn't help that I felt like it was winter even when it was scorching," Danny said.

"No surprise that your power is the complete opposite of mine," Ember said.

"Well, it fits given your hot headed nature," Danny with a smirk. Ember only nailed him in the head again without even looking. "Ow!"

"Puns are a crime against humanity and ghosts. Especially yours," she told him.

"Deal with it," Danny said, nailing her back. Even when they weren't fighting, they were still trading hits. "It's part of my charm."

"Lack thereof, maybe. The only person that charm has attracted is the crazy girl in the pink," Ember said, making Danny groan.

"Why did you bring her up? I was in a decent mood," he said, making her smirk.

"Oh, what? You don't like your fan club?" Ember said with a teasing tone.

"Her, no. Those days are long gone. Now she's a headache," Danny said.

"From what little I've seen of her, I don't doubt it. Quick guess: Queen Bee of the school, thinks she runs everything, feels entitled to anything and everything she wants. Am I right?" Ember listed.

"Wow. That's good. You sure you don't spy on the school?" Danny said, making Ember snort.

"No. One plus to being dead is that I can avoid school. People like that were in my school when I was alive, and I stand them about as well I do now," she said before coming to a quick realization. She was talking about _school_ with _Phantom._ Surreal was a kind way to describe what was going on.

"I could see you doing something like replacing her eyeliner with paint or garlic," Danny said.

"No, but I wish I did think of something like that at the time," Ember said with a smile.

"What?" Danny said with a smile as he turned his gaze from the sky to glance back at her. "Are you telling me you didn't do anything like that?"

"Have you?" Ember questioned.

"Well, no. But you aren't me," Danny said.

"Thank God for that," Ember said with a shudder.

"You would be lucky to be me, and don't sit here and act like you wouldn't," Danny said, smiling wider.

"I'd sooner be Bertrand," Ember told him flatly, but he couldn't see that she was smiling slightly.

"Ok, now I know I'm not that bad. You forget who's his boss?" Danny questioned.

"Ok, so you clear the lowest bar possible. Big deal," Ember said dismissively.

"You could always be Skulker," Danny said casually.

Ember was quiet for a moment. Danny was wondering if he had said something wrong, but when he looked back at her, she was facing the sky with a look of revulsion.

"UGH. Never mind. _That_ is the lowest bar," she said, making him chuckle briefly.

"I've taken him out of commission for quite a while. And if I can help it, it's going to stay that way," Danny said, and Ember didn't miss the tone of darkness that slipped in.

"You know you sound completely different when you talk about Skulker," she told him.

"What can I say? He brings out the worst in me. And for good reason," Danny said through gritted teeth. "If possible, I'd do worse to him. But there's only so much that you can do to such a small, pathetic little creature."

Ember's eyes widened at the venom that entered his tone, and she looked back to see that his face was full of fury. He did relax after a few seconds as he floated upright.

"I think I'll fly on home," he said. "I think I don't smell like weed anymore."

"You don't. And at least you kept me entertained," Ember said, still lying on her guitar. Though she did rotate herself around to face him. Almost as if she was lying in a guitar shaped recliner.

"Not that hard to do. Strangely, you're not that hard to please. Innuendo aside," Danny said quickly, making Ember roll her eyes.

"Just leave before you somehow say something even dumber," she told him.

"I'm gone. But don't forget. Kickball head," he warned her before flying off.

 _"And he leaves with a threat to maintain what's left of his pride,"_ Ember thought, shaking her head before turning back over and looking up at the sky again.

Something was bugging her though. The fact that talking to him seemed casual. Too casual for someone she wanted(wants?) nothing more to kill. Her not attacking him at first had quite a bit to do with the newfound brutality he was capable of. That didn't mean she had to have friendly races and conversate with him like they were well acquainted. From what she heard, Johnny and Kitty were doing something similar. It was all so strange.

Things were simpler before. They were the ghosts bent on world domination, and Phantom was the good guy determined to stop them. And it all changed. It all changed when he buried his friends. He was still Phantom, but he was a bit more rough around the edges. More unpredictable, darker, and even cynical at times. She knew what she'd do to the guy who dared to hurt her friends, but she didn't think Phantom would react on a similar level. Perhaps even worse.

Then he cracked down. Forced them to respect the peace he desired or pay a far bigger price than before. It was also around the same time they started to see him more on their level. Granted, only because he didn't immediately kick them out of a party they decided to sneak into, but it did happen. And they started to tolerate each other. Much more than they ever had before. It was surreal to think of Kitty or Johnny poking fun at Phantom the way that they would do with her. But it was happening.

Ember then righted herself before going to fly off back off into the Ghost Zone. She decided to take advantage of Phantom's night of goodwill and plan for the idea he suggested. Considering the idea of ruling the world was brutally being put a stop to, it was something she had the time to plan for.

* * *

A/N: Main reason I didn't update this was because I hit quite a few dead ends as to what I wanted to do with it. Plus there was one of my other stories that I had quite a bit of fun working on, so I didn't put as much time into thinking about ideas for the story as I could've, but I digress. Hope this somewhat makes up for the absence.


End file.
